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FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT 

AND PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF 

SECONDARY EDUCATION 

IN FRANCE 



BY 



FREDERIC ERNEST FARRINGTON, Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. AUTHOR 
OF "the public PBIMAKY school system OF FRANCE," ETC. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA 

1910 






G 






Co'pyright, 1910 
By Longmans, Green, and Co. 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 



(gCI.A261^'ll 



TO MY WIFE 



PEEFACE 

This volume is offered to the public with the hope of 
affording a source of information which shall satisfy the 
inquiries that are becoming more and more frequent as to 
the progress of education in France. For more than 
seventy-five years Germany has been frequented by Ameri- 
can scholars in the effort to gain new light toward the 
solution of some of the vexing educational problems that 
have confronted us. It is an open question whether or not 
in the early days France had anything worth while in her 
educational system to repay the trouble of making an ex- 
tended study of the conditions in that country. Siuce the 
Franco-Prussian war, however, she has been quietly and 
unostentatiously forging to the fore, so that to-day she is 
fairly among the very leaders. The progress that she has 
made during the last thirty years is quite without a parallel 
within the same length of time in the educational history of 
the world. To be sure, the most striking advance has been 
registered in the fields of primary and industrial education, 
but the development in the domain of secondary education 
is likely to have an only less significant effect upon the 
intellectual progress of the nation. 

This study is confined to the field of the state secondary 
schools. The reader will therefore look in vain, for instance, 
for any discussion of the law of separation that has been 
such a prominent subject of consideration during the last 
few years. This whole question is a purely religious one, 
and affects public education only very indirectly. As has 
been pointed out in the text, there has really been no sudden 
uprising against the church. The beginning of this change 



viii PREFACE 

of heart even antedates the reign of Henry IV. Ever since 
that time the lay element has been quietly transferring 
influence from the church side of the balance, but it was not 
until the period of the Third Eepublic that this change had 
become sufficient to move the scale beam from its time- 
honored position. Now clerical influence has been definitely 
and finally banished from the dominant place it once occu- 
pied in the public school system. 

The material herein presented was gathered during a 
year's stay in Paris, partly through culling over a mass of 
miscellaneous documents and other printed matter (for the 
French have no complete account of their own secondary 
school system that might have served as a point of de- 
parture), but largely through first-hand contact with the 
schools themselves — personal interviews with head masters 
and censors, visits to class rooms in Paris and in the pro- 
vincial lycdes and colleges, and numerous conversations both 
in and out of school with educational workers of all grades 
that were in closest touch with the secondary school con- 
ditions in France to-day. Every effort has been made to get 
as comprehensive a view as possible of the actual workings 
of the secondary schools, lyc^es and colleges both for boys 
and girls, in the provinces no less than in the capital. To 
this end, after attending more than one hundred classes in 
Paris itself, visits were made to the schools in Armentiferes, 
Auxerre, Beaune, Dijon, Fontainbleau, Lille, Saint-Quentin, 
and Sens, and finally to the higher normal schools for men 
in Paris, and for women at Sevres. 

If there be anything here to offend the casual French 
reader who may chance upon these pages, I shall regret 
exceedingly to seem thus ungraciously to repay all the mani 
fold kindnesses I have received in the fair land of France. 
I have attempted to set forth conditions as they appear from 
the American standpoint, commending here, perhaps com- 
menting upon adversely there, but in no case necessarily 



PREFACE ix 

questioning the wisdom of the practice or condition from the 
French point of view. Throughout it all, I have attempted 
to play the part of the sympathetic critic. 

It is a great pleasure once more to bear witness to the 
rare courtesy that has universally been extended to me, and 
to a patience and consideration far in excess of what the 
poor attempts of a sometimes bothersome and persistent 
foreigner who speaks the language but indifferently well 
would appear to merit. The list would be long indeed, if I 
should attempt to mention on this page the names of all to 
whom I am under obligation, I desire at this time, how- 
ever, to express my especial appreciation to M. Gautier, 
Directeur de V Enseignement secondaire, M. Liard, Vice-recteur 
de I'Academie de Paris, M. Lyon, Recteur de VAcademie de 
Lille, M. Boirac, Becteur de VAcademie de Dijon, for author- 
izations to visit the schools within their jurisdictions ; to my 
old friends M. Dr. Philippe, Chef des travaux au Lahoratoire 
de jpsychologie physiologique de la Sorhonne, and M. Picavet, 
Secretaire du College de France, et Rcdacteur en chef de la 
Revue internationale de V enseignement, the former for 
valuable material on the recent developments in gymnastic 
instruction, and the latter for many helpful suggestions, and 
much good counsel as to schools to visit, to say nothing of 
numerous personal letters that constantly smoothed the way. 
I am further under obligation to Dr. Benedict, my colleague 
at the University of Texas, for much patient reading of 
manuscript. Finally, the sane counsel, wise judgment, and 
indefatigable aid of my wife have been a perennial source of 
encouragement and inspiration. 

FREDERIC ERNEST FARRINGTON. 

Austin, Texas, October 1, 1909. 



CO:N'TE]SrTS 

Chapter Page 

I. The First Revival of Learning ...... 1 

II. The Second Revival OF Learning. Scholasticism 16 

III. The Renaissance to the Revolution .... 31 

IV. The Revolution and the Progress of the Nine- 

teenth Century 59 

V. The Administrative Organization of the 

Secondary School System 84 

VI. The Administration and the Teaching Force 

OF THE Schools 103 

VIL The Program 123 

VIII. The School and Its Life 150 

IX. French and the Classics 187 

X. Modern Languages 213 

XI. History and Geography 237 

XII. Mathebiatics and Science 257 

XIII. Other Subjects of Instruction : Philosophy, 

Morale, Law, Drawing, and Gymnastics . 288 

XIV. The Public Education of Girls 309 

V/XV. The Higher Normal School and the Training 

OF Teachers 345 

XVI. Some Characteristics of the Schools of the 

Twentieth Century 378 



xii CONTENTS 

Page 
Appendix A. Copt of Master's Diploma of One Petrus 

Mansart, 1511 389 

Appendix B. Curriculum of the Colleges of the 

University. Statutes of 1600 . . . 390 

Appendix C. Paris Colleges, 1600, Chronological 

Order of Foundation 391 

Appendix D. Chronological Order of Foundation of 
THE Universities of France in Exist- 
ence AT THE End of the Seventeenth 
Century 393 

Appendix E. Curriculum of the Jesuits : Ratio 

Studiorum, 1599 394 

Appendix F. Extract from the Cash Account of Mon- 
sieur Fillet de la Barre, 1706-1728 396 

Appendix G. Curriculum of the University Colleges, 

176- according to Holland . . . . 399 

Appendix H. Comparative Daily Programs in 1769 

AND 1874 401 

Appendix I. Occupations of Parents of Scholarship 

Holders appointed in 1906-1907 . . 402 

Appendix J. Menu. Ltcee Lakanal, Sceaux . . . 403 

Appendix K. Program of the Examination (Letters) 
FOR THE Certificate for Teaching in 
Girls' Secondart Schools .... 405 

Appendix L. Diplome d'Etudes Superieures de Phi- 
LosoPHiE. Examination Markings, 
Higher Diploma in Philosophy . . 408 

Appendix M. Bibliography 411 



INDEX , 431 



NOTE 

The following abbreviations are used in the footnotes and in 
ttie bibliography : 

Bull. adm. for Bulletin administratif du Ministfere de I'instruction 

publique et des Beaux-Arts. 
Circ. for Circulaires et instructions ofRcielles relatives a I'instruction 

publique. 
Enquete for Enquete sur I'enseignement secondaire. The report of the 

Ribot Commission. 

Rep. Com. Ed. for Report of the United States Commissiouer of 
Education. 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

CHAPTEE I 

THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 

The meeting of Charles the Great and Alcuin at Parma in 
the spring of 781 was one of those events in history, which, 
however unimportant they may appear at the cijaries Invites 
moment, seem fraught with significance when Alcuin to 
viewed in the light of subsequent develop- ^'^ 
ments. These two men standing as they did for the 
highest attainment in Western Europe, the one of the 
temporal power, and the other of the intellectual life, were 
no strangers to each other, for they had met in a neighbor- 
ing city some years before. Doubtless during the inter- 
vening time the powerful king had heard of the rise of that 
young Saxon with only less interest than the latter had 
followed the strenuous career of the Erankish monarch. It 
was at the time of this second meeting in the Italian city 
that Charles formally iavited Alcuin to come to the Frank- 
land to teach. After the death of J^ilbert, Alcuin had 
gone to Eome in accordance with the wish of his former 
teacher to receive from the Pope the pallium for Eanbald 
whom the old archbishop had previously selected as his 
successor. Not only did the invitation of Charles furnish a 
welcome opportunity for relief from the troublous times that 
portended no peace for the people of Britain, but further, 
Alcuin, then in the fuU vigor of ripe middle life, felt it the 
call of duty to cross the channel. He delayed only long 
enough to return to York to obtain permission from his 
archbishop and his king, and to attend to some business 



2 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

matters at home, for although neither then nor afterwards 
was he ever a monk,i }^g ^^^s already scholasticus, or master 
of the cathedral school at York and was also in charge of 
the cathedral library there. Thence in the next year he 
set sail for the continent, in company with some of his 
chosen friends, to take charge of the palace school at 
Aachen. 

Charles the Great was already somewhat in touch with 

the learning of the time, but what he had been able to 

obtain from Peter of Pisa and Paulus Diaconus 

Charles s served only to stimulate his desires for more. 

Learning. . -^ . 

Up to this time, however, his book learning, 
such as it was, had been chiefly limited to grammar. The 
rest of the trivium and the greater part of the arithmetic 
that he acquired came from Alcuin, while for the other 
subjects of the quadrivium he was subsequently indebted to 
Alcuin's successor, the more scientifically inclined Clement 
of Ireland.^ So when Charles, in this year 781, in one of 
the few peaceful intervals of his stormy career, met this 
Saxon scholar who he thought could satisfy his desire for 
knowledge, he was quick to seize the opportunity and invite 
him to his court. 

At that time in Gaul, learning had fallen upon evil days. 
Although under the old Eoman Empire there had been 
Condition of ^Q^iiy schools, now all was changed ; internal 
Learning in strife, foreign invasion, " the distribution of 
^'^ ' the monasteries that Charles Martel had made 
among his warriors had given the last blow to the schools of 
the Gauls." ^ The great municipal schools that had flour- 
ished at Treves, at Bordeaux, and at numerous other cities, 
had passed away,^ and what little instruction there remained 
was carried on by the ecclesiastical schools. The sum total of 

1 He was ordained a deacon at York. "West, Alcuin, p. 64. 

3 MuLLiNGER, The schools of Charles the Great, pp. 70, 121. 

8 MoNNiER, Alcuin et Charlemagne, p. 34. 

* GuizoT, Histoire de la civilisation en France depuis la chute de I'empire 
romain, II., p. 2. For list of the most important episcopal schools from the 
sixth to the middle of the eighth century, soe id., p. 4. 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 3 

all the subjects taught at these schools is comprehended in 
the phrase " the seven liberal arts ; " the trivium, including 
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, and the quadrivium, arith- 
metic, astronomy, geometry, and music.^ But these subjects 
had sunk nearly to the level of crass utilitarianism, and in 
the main they were studied only just enough to sustain the 
intellectual life of the church. Charles himself in one of his 
capitularies bears witness to the low condition of learning : 
" Desirous as we are of improving the condition of the 
churches, we impose upon ourselves the task of reviving, 
with the utmost zeal, the study of letters, well nigh extin- 
guished through the neglect of our ancestors. We charge all 
our subjects, as far as they may be able, to cultivate the lib- 
eral arts, and we set them the example. We have already, 
God helping, carefully corrected the books of the Old and 
New Testaments, corrupted through the ignorance of tran- 
scribers." 2 The passing of these former schools marked too 
the passing of literature. " Not only did the literature 
become entirely religious, but the religious even ceased to be 
literature." ^ 

At that very time learning in Ireland and Britain was 
considerably in advance of that on the continent. Christi- 
anity had been carried to Ireland by Greek 
missionaries, and to Britain by Eoman. It ^^^ irdand. 
was these two countries that guarded the sparks 
of intellectual life and kept them aglow to rekindle the 
sacred fires in Gaul. Of all the schools of England, that at 
York was by far the most famous, not only for its teachers, 
but what was of more importance still, for its library, for in 
the list of books given by Alcuin himself ^ one finds practi- 
cally all the text-books of the time enumerated. It is 
quite natural, then, that Charles should have had his 

1 For a good account of the development of the seven liberal arts, see 
Davidson, Aristotle, Appendix ; and West, Alcuin, ch. I, 

2 Baluze, Capitularia regxmn Francorum, I., 204-5, quoted in Mullin- 
6ER, op. cit., p. 101. 

2 GuizoT, op. cit., II., p. 6. 

* Quoted in Mullinger, op. cit., pp. 60-61, note. 



4 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

attention directed toward York, and when he cast about for 
teachers to satisfy his desire for learning that he should 
have been attracted by the renown of the scholasticus of that 
famous school. The meeting at Parma gave him the oppor- 
tunity he wanted, and he was not slow to offer Alcuin the 
position of master of the palace school. Early in 782 the 
Saxon teacher was installed in his new place. 

This palace school was in no sense a public school, but 
seems to have been intended exclusively for the king and 

The Palace ^^^ court. Among its pupils we find Charles 
School a,nd its himself, his three sons, his wife, his daughters, 
wpi &• j^^g sisters, Einhard, subsequently his biog- 
rapher, and a few others.^ Although nominally situated at 
Aachen, the school was a kind of peripatetic institution, for 
it followed the wanderings of the court, now at Worms, now 
at Mayence, now at Frankfort, now at Eatisbon.^ In fact, 
this migratory characteristic seems to settle the question 
that it could not have been a higher school in any kind of 
national educational system. Subsequently the school ap- 
pears to have increased considerably in numbers, for we 
find that a greater part of its pupils obtained positions 
of responsibility as ambassadors, archbishops, and missi 
dominici? 

Alcuin 's task was by no means an easy one, for he had to 
adapt his teaching to pupils differing widely in age, attain- 
ments, and interests. It is rather likely, how- 

Inatruction ^^®^' ^^^^ whenever the king was present, his 
own needs in large measure determined the 
instruction for the others. Inasmuch as Alcuin never showed 
himself to be an independent thinker, the lessons of the 
palace school probably followed pretty closely the general 
character of his own instruction at York, naturally, however, 
with certain modifications to adapt them to the different 
nature of his pupils. One can readily imagine that the 



^ MoNNiER, op. cit., pp. 81-82. 

^ MULLINGER, op. cit., p. 105. 

8 MONNIER, op. cit., p. 135. 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 5 

other members of the school as well as Charles himself 
wanted something more than instruction in reading Latin, in 
learning the church chants, or in acquiring facility in the 
computation of the church calendar. In this respect this 
school differed from any other with which Alcuin had ever 
been connected. At all events, the preparation for his new 
kind of teaching was often no slight task for him, master 
though he was of the traditional learning, for he himself 
testifies: "As soon as the ruddy charioteer of the dawn 
suffuses the liquid deep with the new light of day, the old 
man rubs the sleep of night from his eyes and leaps at once 
from his couch, running straightway into the fields of the 
ancients to pluck their flowers of correct speech and scatter 
them in sport before his boys."^ So the intercourse of 
teacher and pupils undoubtedly redounded to the mutual 
profit of both. 

" It is difficult to say," says Guizot,^ " what was the object 
of these lessons. I am inclined to believe that Alcuin 
treated all sorts of subjects somewhat at random; that in 
this palace school there was rather more of conversation 
than of instruction, strictly speaking, and that its chief 
merit lay in the play of the mind, in the successive arousing 
and satisfying of the curiosity." 

From a sentence in Monnier,^ it looks as though Alcuin 
might have presented the seven liberal arts in succession to 
his pupils in the palace school. It is not unreasonable to 
suppose that the work thus laboriously prepared may have 
served as the basis of the treatises that have come down to 
us and that were written during the period of his abbacy at 
Tours. 

A few lines* from a conversation carried on between 

1 MiGNE, PairoZog'mia^ma, CI., p. 782. Carmina CCXXXl. Quoted in 
West, op. ciL, p. 47. 

2 GuizoT, op. cit., II., pp. 189-190. 

^ "Vers I'anuee 790, Alcuin, apres avoir termine son cours sur les sept 
arts, mettait a la voile pour la Grand Bretagne." Monnier, op. cit., p. 144, 
referring to Alcuin, Hhet. Quoted from Froben, t. II., p. 313. 

* GuizoT, op. cit., II., pp. 190-191. 



6 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Alcuin and Pepin, the second son of Charles, then about 
fifteen years old, will suffice to show something of the 
nature of the instruction, which as Mullinger points out 
"foreshadows the scholastic disputation."^ 

Pepin. " What is writing ? " 

Alcuin. " The guardian of history." 

P. " What is speech ? " 

A. " The interpreter of the soul." 

P. " What produces speech ? " 

A. "The tongue." 

P. " What is the tongue ? " 

A. " The whip of the air." 

P. " What is the air ? " 

A. " The preserver of life." 

P. " What is life ? " 

A. " The joy of the happy, the sorrow of the unfortunate, 
the expectation of death." 

Surely not a very advanced form of teaching, but inter- 
esting as showing the character of the instruction and the 
trend of thought of the period.^ 

Successful as the palace school was, nevertheless it was 

one of the less important of Alcuin's infiuences on Prankish 

p, , , culture. Strongly supported, if not actually 

Capitulary urged on by Alcuin, Charles began to spread 
of 787. ^-j^j^g intellectual leaven to the far corners of his 
domain. The famous capitulary of 787, "the first general 
charter of education for the Middle Ages," is the earliest and 
by far the most important of the royal decrees by which he 
tried to bring this to the attention of his people. It was 
addressed to all the bishops and the abbats throughout his 
possessions, and while returning thanks for the expressions 
of good feeling that he had received from them, nevertheless 
he kindly reproved them for their many uncouth phrases 
and exhorted them to improvement. He especially urged 

1 Mullinger, op. ciL, p. 75. 

2 For more detailed account of the instruction in the palace school, see 
MoNNiER, op. cit., pp. 87-135. 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 7 

that men should be chosen for interpretation of the Scrip- 
tures, "who are both able and willing to learn, and also 
desirous of instructing others." 

The full text of this epoch-making document is as 
follows : ^ 

" Charles, by the grace of God, King of the Franks and of the 
Lombards, and Patrician of the Eomans, to Baugalf, abbat, and 
to his whole congregation and the faithful committed to his 
charge : 

" Be it known to your devotion, pleasing to God, that in con- 
junction with our faithful we have judged it to be of utility that, 
in the bishoprics and monasteries committed by m. Qpg„f 
Christ's favour to our charge, care should be taken Capitulary 
that there shall be not only a regular manner of °^ '^^'^• 
life and one conformable to holy religion, but also the study of 
letters, each to teach and learn them according to his ability and 
the divine assistance. For even as due observance of the rule of 
the house tends to good morals, so zeal on the part of the teacher 
and the taught imparts order and grace to sentences ; and those 
who seek to please God by living aright should also not neglect to 
please him by right speaking. It is written, ' by thine own words 
shalt thou be justified or condemned ; ' and although right doing 
be preferable to right speaking, yet must the knowledge of what 
is right precede right action. Everyone, therefore, should strive 
to understand what it is that he would fain accomplish ; and this 
right understanding will be the sooner gained according as the 
utterances of the tongue are free from error. And if false speak- 
ing is to be shunned by all men, especially should it be shunned 
by those who have elected to be the servants of the truth. 
During past years we have often received letters from different 
monasteries informing us that at their sacred services the brethren 
offered up prayers on our behalf; and we have observed that the 
thoughts contained in these letters, though in themselves most 
just, were expressed in uncouth language, and while pious devo- 
tion dictated the sentiments, the unlettered tongue was unable to 
express them aright. Hence there has arisen in our minds the 

1 MiGNE, Patrologia Latina, XCVIIL, p. 895. Translated in Mullin- 
GEK, op. cit., pp. 97-99. 



8 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

fear lest, if the skill to write rightly were thus lacking, so too 
would the power of rightly comprehending the Sacred Scriptures 
be far less than was fitting ; and we all know that though verbal 
errors be dangerous, errors of the understanding are yet more so. 
We exhort you, therefore, not only not to neglect the study of 
letters, but to apply yourselves thereto with perseverance and 
with that humility which is well pleasing to God ; so that you 
may be able to penetrate with greater ease and certainty the 
mysteries of the Holy Scriptures. For as these contain images, 
tropes, and similar figures, it is impossible to doubt that the reader 
will arrive far more readily at the spiritual sense according as 
he is the better instructed in learning. Let there, therefore, be 
chosen for this work men wlio are both able and willing to learn, 
and also desirous of instructing others ; and let them apply them- 
selves to the work with a zeal equalling the earnestness with 
which we recommend it to them. 

" It is our wish that you may be what it behooves the soldiers 
of the Church to be — religious in heart, learned in discourse, pure 
in act, eloquent in speech ; so that all who approach your house 
in order to invoke the Divine Master or to behold the excellence 
of the religious life, may be edified in beholding you and instructed 
in hearing you discourse or chant, and may return home rendering 
thanks to God most High. 

"Fail not, as thou regardest our favour, to send a copy of this 
letter to all thy suffragans and to all the monasteries ; and let no 
monk go beyond his monastery to administer justice or to enter 
the assemblies and the voting-places. Adieu." 

As to how carefully the commands of Charles were carried 
out, history unfortunately gives us no very satisfactory de- 
tails. Charles himself, however, had already brought with 
him from Eome teachers of singing and arithmetic, and 
these were distributed among the various monasteries of the 
realm. At all events the king does not appear to have been 
satisfied entirely with the way in which his new plans were 
working out, for he issued other capitularies two years later 
containing more specific directions. In one of these he 
directed that the priesthood should be recruited "not only 
from among the servile class but also from among the sons 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LFARNING 9 

of freemen." ^ This is rather interesting as showing some- 
thing of the disrepute into which the church had fallen, as 
well as the efforts of Charles to make it a more honorable 
calling. 

"Let every monastery," says this same capitulary of 789, 
" and every abbey have its school, where boys may be taught 
the psalms, the system of musical notation, singing, arithmetic, 
and grammar; and let the books which are given them be 
free from faults, and let care be taken that the boys do not 
spoil them either when reading or writing."^ This shows 
very clearly what Charles believed should be taught in 
these schools, but it also throws additional light on the 
decay of education even among the monasteries and abbeys, 
and furthermore echoes his dissatisfaction at the effect of 
his great capitulary. 

Some years later in 797, Theodulfus, bishop of Orleans, 
issued a rather remarkable letter to his clergy. Although 
more limited in the scope of its influence than 

.-1 J. -J. 1 n J. T . The Capitulary 

the great capitulary oi ten years earlier, yet of Theodulfus. 
it is even more liberal in its provisions. He 
ordered all his clergy to open schools for their parishioners 
wherein the children of the faithful might receive free in- 
struction.^ This, as Mullinger points out, was probably the 
prototype of the modern free parochial school. Here again, 
what the exact results accomplished were we have no means 
of knowing. One writer * goes so far as to assert that the 
lower orders in France had more universal education at the 
end of the eighth century than they had in the first quarter 
of the nineteenth; while another maintains that they were 

1 Baluze, Capitularia, I., p. 237. 

2 Ibid. Quoted in Mullinger, op. cit., p. 102. 

^ " Presbyteri per villas et vicos scholas habeant, et si qui libet fidelium 
suos parvulos ad discendas litteras eis commendare vult, eos suscipere non 
renuant sed cum summa charitate eos doceant attendantes illudquod scriptum 
est. ..." Labbeus, Concilia Galliae, VII., p. 1140 ; quoted in Maitre, 
op. cit., p. 14, note. 

* LoRENZ, Alcuins Leben, p. 38. 



10 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

probably of almost no account, but that "the attempt is 
worthy of note." ^ 

The importance of Alcuin's influence upon education, 
however, is not limited to his direction of the palace school 

Alcuin ap- ^^^ ^° ^^^ P^^ ^^ ^^® issuance of the educa- 
pointed Abbat tional capitularies. His incumbency of the 
of Tours. abbacy of Tours is of even greater significance, 
for the effect of his work there is more directly traceable 
through the remaining centuries that lead on to the founding 
of the University of Paris. One can readily imagine that 
Alcuin's life at the palace school could not have been al- 
together pleasant. It is hard enough to teach the children 
of royalty, but to have as a pupil one of the most powerful 
monarchs of his age who has already passed middle life, is 
far from an enviable position. Charles was indefatigable 
in his questions, and the poor Saxon master was often hard 
pressed for an answer. Alcuin began to long for release 
from this strenuous life. At length in 796 Charles gave in 
to his importunity and consented to have him give up his 
work. In token of his fourteen years of faithful service as 
teacher, counsellor, and ambassador, Charles rewarded him 
with the abbacy of St. Martin of Tours, one of the richest 
in the kingdom. 

The seclusion of the abbey undoubtedly furnished a wel- 
come relief from the whirl of court life, and a court life 
whose laxness must often have shocked and 
^^'or?ouS'°^ grieved the churchman. But Alcuin's respon- 
sibility was even greater there than at Aachen. 
Ealbat of Tours was a kind of embryo feudal lord, for he 
was the master of twenty thousand serfs, and his farms 
stretched from Tours as far as Aachen.^ Yet he took up 
his new task with all the zeal of his early life. He restored 
the Benedictine rule in all its severity, and reorganized the 
school, re-establishing instruction in all the seven arts, and 
even taking an active part in the teaching himself. He set 



1 GuizoT, op. cii., II., p. 216. 

2 MONNIER, op. ciL, p. 338. 



TILE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 11 

himself early to the task of replenishing his library, and to 
that end besought Charles for leave to send some of his 
younger monks to England to bring back books from the 
treasures of his old library at York.^ We have no means 
of knowing the extent of the obligation thus incurred by 
Tours, but we may reasonably infer that whatever of the 
books enumerated by Alcuin in his account of the library 
at York 2 were not already at Tours might subsequently 
have been found among the books of the latter monastery. 
At all events, thanks to Alcuin's reforms, the fame of the 
monastery at Tours soon spread far and wide, and scholars 
were attracted there from all over the western 
world. Eelieved from the necessity of adapt- Reforms 
ing his teaching to the demands of men of the 
world, Alcuin contracted the scope of his instruction to the 
narrow limits prescribed for religious needs, and Virgil and 
other secular classic authors were put on a " forbidden list." 
The whole monastery breathed the spirit of thoughtful study 
and reflection. At this time all instruction was free, al- 
though some of Alcuin's successors allowed " sordid business 
considerations " to enter into their conduct of the abbey, for 
about 840 we find Archbishop Amalric setting aside certain 
property whose income should provide for re-establishing 
free instruction at Tours, and Charles the Bald confirming 
this in a capitulary .^ Alcuin himself spent much time in 
looking after the work of his copyists, for he was especially 
anxious to restore the purity of the Latin language. But 
that Alcuin found time for more advanced instruction may 
be learned from the famous scholars that came to St, Martin's 
to profit by his teaching. By far the most illustrious of 
all these pupils (in fact his fame even surpasses that of his 
master) was Eabanus Maurus, subsequently abbat at Fulda, 

1 Alcuin, Upist. XXXVIII., I., p. 52. Quoted in Monnier, op. cit., 
p. 260. 

2 See MuLLiNGER, op. cit., pp. 60-61, note. 

' MaJtre, Les ecoles ipiscopales et monastiques de VOccident depuis Chxrle- 
magnejusqu'd, Philippe- Auguste, pp. 49, 203. 



12 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

one who zealously sought to carry on the ideals of his 
teacher. 

Thenceforward learning seemed to flow in three parallel 
currents.^ 1. At the east it centred around Fulda and the 
various monasteries dependent upon that parent institution. 
Thence came the influence that spread widely over Ger- 
many,2 2. At the west we find the group of schools that 
subsequently became merged into the University of Paris, 
3. In the centre were the schools of Eeichenau, St. Gall, 
Loubes, Li^ge, and Strasburg, which contributed in no small 
way in the eleventh century toward the development of the 
western group of schools. 

After Alcuin went to Tours, Charles hesitated some time 
before appointing a new head for the palace school. His 
interest in astronomy had meanwhile been 
Policy growing steadily, and Alcuin had never been 
^t Q^t ^^^® satisfactorily to answer the questions of 
his royal pupil, so it is not strange that the 
king's new teacher should be stronger in the subjects of the 
quadrivium than was his old master. The new head was 
Clement of Ireland. This appointment was a great surprise 
and grief to Alcuin, for not only was the emphasis of studies 
changed from the trivium to the quadriviian, but the Irish 
scholars represented the tradition and doctrine of the Egyp- 
tian school, and the change that this implies was of far more 
initial importance to the churchmen of those times than ap- 
pears possible to us now who are looking back at that re- 
ligious^ strife over a period of more than eleven centuries. 
It was not until about a century later that these two schools 
were in a measure harmonized in the person of Eemy of 
Auxerre, who taught at Eheims and at Paris.* 

Lewis the Pious, the successor of Charles the Great, at- 
tempted to carry on the work of his father, for as one of 

1 MoNNiER, op. cit., p. 266. 

^ See Russell, German higher schools, p. 10. 

* For more detailed account, see Mullinger, op. cit,, pp. 114-123; 
MONNIER, op. cit., pp. 36-43, 136-142. 

* MoNNlER, op. cit., p. 267. 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 13 

Alcuin's pupils in the palace school he had become 
vitally interested in the intellectual life. We find him 
formally recognizing the existence of two Ian- ,, . , 
guages in prescribing the translation of the Episcopal 
Scriptures to the lingua Teudisca. At the same Schools. 
time we see lay education differentiating more and more from 
religious education, and the line of demarcation between the 
monastic and the episcopal schools becoming more and more 
distinct. The culture of the former was decidedly of a 
higher type than that of the latter, although one was in no 
sense a preparation for the other. The episcopal school was 
attached to the cathedral and was under the direct control of 
the bishop. It was destined to prepare the priests for the 
diocese. The acting head of the school seems to have been 
known as the magister scholasticus, or capiscolus?- It was 
he who read slowly in a droning voice the words that the 
boys laboriously wrote upon their tablets of wax. Only 
after these had been carefully revised by the master could 
they be copied upon the leaves of parchment. In this way 
each pupil probably wrote ^ most of the books he ever pos- 
sessed.^ Narrow utilitarianism was the dominant factor in 
outlining the work of the schools, for it probably seldom 
included more than the minimum requirements for the per- 
formance of the religious offices. Orleans and Eheims fur- 
nish the only striking exceptions to the general mediocrity 
of all these cathedral schools during the ninth century. 
These two schools under the direction of Theodolfus and 
Hincmar respectively represented distinctly a higher type 

1 MaItre, op. ciL, p. 184. 

* This reminds one in general of the custom still pursued in some of the 
classes of the elementary schools where the words of the teacher dictated at 
the end of the lesson and copied by the pupils serve as their text-books. See 
the author's French public primary school system, p. 90. It is almost un- 
uecessary to add that here the similarity between these schools ceases. 

8 See Rabanus Matteus' words in Migne, CXII., 1600-1601 : 

" Me quia quaecumque docuerunt ore magistri, 
Ne vaga mens perdat, cuncta dedi foliis." 

MuLLiNGER, op. cit., p. 131, uote. 



14 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of education. Indeed, it was "the episcopal school at 
Eheims which . . . claims the proud distinction of having 
preserved, in this century (the ninth), that tradition of 
learning which links the episcopal schools with the Uni- 
versity of Paris." ^ 

It is to the monastic schools throughout the period from 
Charles the Great to Philip Augustus, however, that we 

must look to find the real preservers of learn- 
Sc°hools° ^^- Corbie, St. Eiquier, St. Martin at Metz, 

St. Bertin, and Ferriferes (one of the two abbeys 
bestowed upon Alcuin when he first came to the court of 
Charles) are among the most important of these. In 831 
the library at St. Eiquier possessed two hundred and fifty 
volumes, a very large number for that time when every 
book represented the arduous hand labor of days, and some- 
times of months. Here, thanks to the severity of the Bene- 
dictine rule, not only was there much copying of books, but 
the monks zealously devoted themselves to the study of the 
liberal arts, the writings of the church fathers, and the Holy 
Scriptures themselves. Alcuin had posted in his copying 
room at Tours: "Later the copyist may himself become 
master. Then he may find new doctrines, and expound 
those of the ancients." ^ 

It is worthy of note in passing to refer to the petition of 
the bishops to the king in 829. They begged him to use 

his authority " to establish schools in the three 
^tion^829^*^' ™°^^ Suitable places within his dominions in 

order that his father's work and his own might 
not come to naught." ^ Unfortunately the advent of civil 
war put an end to this project, and to most of the other 
reforms that Lewis the Pious had undertaken. 

Prom this time on well nigh to the beginning of the Uni- 
versity of Paris, we have to seek for intellectual attainment 
in the scattered monasteries where abbats and monks devoted 

* MULLINGER, op. cit., p. 132. 

2 Quoted, MoNNiER, op. cit., pp. 263-264. 
8 Quoted, MAtxRE, op. cit., pp. 25-26. 



2 Quoted, MONNIER, op. cit., pp. 263- 
8 Quoted, MaItre, op. cit., pp. 25-26 



THE FIRST REVIVAL OF LEARNING 15 

to the cause of learning still cherished the ideals that Alcuia 
had brought to Frankland. This influence is directly trace- 
able down to Odo of Cluny, but with his death in 940 its last 
vestige fades away in the gathering gloom that enshrouds the 
greater part of the tenth century. Perchance its tradition 
still persisted, and like a sunken river it flowed steadily 
along, coming to the surface again in Drago, John the Deaf, 
and Eoscellinus. Such was the first revival of learning in 
Western Europe that emanated from Alcuin and " Europe's 
lofty beacon," as the Saxon teacher once admiringly called 
Charles the Great. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 

"Ampeee recognized three revivals of learning in France: 
the first dates from Charlemagne ; the second falls at the end 
Three Revivals *^^ ^^® eleventh century ; the last is the great 
of Learning in Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
France. turies." ^ It is the period of this second revival 
of learning, commonly known as the period of scholasticism, 
that now concerns us, and the significance of this whole 
movement centres around the fact that it marks the found- 
ing of our modern universities. 

The former monastic and cathedral schools still dragged 
on a more or less precarious existence. Almost like a flash 
in the pan some one of them would become 
'^the Tim^e^s°^ famous, but its repute was only ephemeral, and 
it soon dropped back into a position of medi- 
ocrity. The renown of any particular school was dependent 
upon the brilliancy of the individual head ; hence it failed 
to exercise any continuous influence on the intellectual de- 
velopment of the nation as a whole. The system thus had 
no intrinsic worth of its own. After the fatalistic notion of 
the dies irae had passed away, and people awoke to the full 
realization of the fact that the world was still as intact as 
ever, they seemed infused with new life. One expression 
of this regeneration worked itself out in the zeal for organi- 
zation. This is the period of expansion, of the crusades to 
the east, of the rise of the guilds in the west, of the growth 
of independent communes in France and Italy. Apply this 

^ Maitre, Lcs icoles ipiscopales ct monastiques de VOccident, p. 141, 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 17 

same development to the intellectual world, and we have the 
community of learned men, the university. 

In the eleventh century the cathedral school at Paris was 
no more and no less than an ordinary church school, merely a 
type of the sort of institution that had already p^^.-^ ^^ ^ 
been in existence for centuries. It was perhaps Centre of 
a little more prominent on accoimt of its being Learning, 
situated at the capital city, but the Paris of those days did not 
hold the same relative position in the minds of the people that 
it holds to-day ; in fact, on more than one occasion it had been 
forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Eheims, Laon, or 
Bee in the intellectual world. From the advent of William 
of Champeaux, however, there was a permanent change. He 
began to draw pupils from afar, and thither in the very first 
years of the twelfth century was attracted that young Breton, 
" the first of French philosophers in the order of time, and by 
the intellectual movement which he determined, the precursor 
of Eamus and Descartes, in other words, of the Renaissance 
and the modern spirit." ^ This man was Peter Abelard. 

After attending the school of William of Champeaux for 
a brief period, Abelard's independent spirit refused longer to 
brook the domain of traditional learning, so he 
determined to break with his teacher and open Learnhi<n 
a school of his own. A contemporary writer 
of the twelfth century, Guillaume de Conches, suggests that 
this action of Abelard's may have been typical of the time. 
" Our students," said he, " have renounced the Pythagorean 
system which required seven years of listening and thinking, 
and did not allow one to question the master before the 
eighth year. To-day, when he is barely inside the door and 
before he has taken his seat, the pupil questions his master, 
and what is worse, judges him."^ Abelard taught at 
Melun and at Corbeil, and finally moved on the very camp 
of the enemy by establishing a school on the slope of Mount 
Ste. Genevifeve itself, not far from the present precincts of 

1 C0MPAYR16, Abelard, p. 23. 

2 Quoted in Th6rt, Eistoire de VMucation en France, I., p. 298. 

2 



18 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the university. There were already schools on the northern 
reaches of that height that were openly competing with the 
cathedral school in the city, but Abelard's quickly over- 
shadowed all the others. William of Champeaux was soon 
forced to give up his position in the cloistral school, and 
after a brief interval Abelard was installed in the place of 
his former teacher. This was really the summit of his 
career, and he continued to teach theology and dialectic 
there for four or five years. Vainglorious and boastful 
though he was, such was the brilliancy of his intellect and 
the power of his argument that he attracted students from 
far and near, and Paris became more than ever the intel- 
lectual Mecca, "a source of living water, another Athens." 
It was during this period that Abelard is said to have 
counted among his pupils twenty cardinals and more than 
fifty bishops and archbishops.^ The virility in his teaching 
lay in the fact that he replaced the old trivium ^ by pure 
philosophy and advanced theology, contending chiefly for the 
dominance of the reason as opposed to tradition. " Scholas- 
ticism had begun before Abelard, but it was he who gave 
movement and life to the method by lending it his power 
and his renown. It was he above all who erected it into a 
principle and gave it a general application." ^ 

Thus in this teaching of Abelard do we find the germs of 

the university, but these did not develop to a recognizable 

Abelard the ^^^^ until more than sixty years after his 

Forerunner of death. Abelard was the forerunner rather 

the University. ^^^^ ^^^ founder of the University of Paris, 

for we have no evidence for supposing he ever had the 

1 Crevier, Histoire de VUniversiti de Paris, I., p. 171. 

2 For an interesting discussion as to Abelard's knowledge of mathematics, 
see Ouvrages inidits d'AMlard, publics par Victor Cousin, Introduction, p. 
xliv. " It is certain then that Abelard was entirely lacking in mathematical 
knowledge." Also in Crevier, op. cit., I., p. 221: "Although John of 
Salisbury testifies to have had a smattering of mathematics, it does not seem to 
have been studied in the twelfth century as much aa in the time of Alcuin, and 
in the centuries immediately following him." 

8 CoMPAYR^, op. cit., p. 19. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 19 

remotest conception of an organization like even the univer- 
sity of the thirteenth century. Abelard, however, was one 
of the first exponents of that desire for teaching, that neces- 
sity for individual expression, in a word for the Lehrfreiheit, 
that has dominated the universities since his day. " He was 
a man who by his merits and his defects, by the audacity of 
his opinions, the brilliancy of his career, his innate passion 
for controversy, and his rare talent for teaching, contributed 
most to increase and expand the taste for study and that 
intellectual movement whence issued the University of Paris 
in the thirteenth century." ^ 

The impetus given to learning by Abelard was quickly 
noticeable, for in the last half of the century Paris was full 
of schools and teachers. The work in the 
more elementary of these schools was doubt- Grammar 
less similar to that described by John of Teaching in 
Salisbury who came to Paris about 1135 and *ceJtury!*^ 
for a brief period sat under Abelard's teaching. 
" The teacher explained the authors, accustoming his pupils 
to apply the rules to the text. He pointed out the oratorical 
turns and the subtleties in the art of persuasion. He noted 
the fitness of the terms and the metaphorical expressions, the 
order and arrangement of the different parts of the subject ; 
what attention should be paid to the choice of words and 
thoughts ; how the style ought to vary according to the 
subject-matter. He carefully trained his pupils' memory, 
requiring them to recite to him the finest selections from 
the historians, the poets, and the orators, which he had 
explained to them. He had them reproduce exactly what 
they had heard (that is, what he had told them). He en- 
couraged them to read for themselves, particularly in the 
great authors. He wanted them to write both prose and 
verse every day, and he started conferences wherein they 
discussed questions among themselves."^ 

1 Ouvrages inidits d'AMlard^ puhlUs par Victor Cousin, Introduction, 
p. 1. 

2 KiLiAN, Tableau historique de Vinstruction secondaire en France, p. 7. 



20 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The instruction in the ecclesiastical schools of that time 
was for the most part free. In fact, William of Champeaux 
is said to have taught philosophy publicly and 
Fees for gratuitously in a faubourg of Paris, where he 
laid the foundations of the abbey of St. Victor 
in 1108.^ But it is inconceivable that all the schools that 
were springing up on Mount Ste, Genevifeve could have been 
free. Fired with the zeal for self-expression though those 
teachers were, so much so in fact that they seemed to be 
learners one day and teachers the next, yet they must have 
gained a livelihood in some way. The teaching profession 
then could not have been entirely bereft of pecuniary reward, 
for Abelard himself declared that " poverty forced him to re- 
open a school." 2 What the fees were we have no means of 
knowing, but in his case they must have amounted to con- 
siderable, for this school of the Paraclete was fairly thronged 
with students, and formerly at his lectures in Paris he had 
been known to have as many as three thousand auditors. 

In Abelard's time the Lehrfreiheit was less restricted than 
in the succeeding years. The ease with which he opened 

Lehrfreiheit ^^® school and gathered about him his hun- 
and the dreds of eager disciples is an indication of the 
License. existing conditions. But the misfortunes of 
his later years are well known : how he was driven about 
from place to place ; haled before an ecclesiastical council at 
Soissons and forced to burn his books with his own hand (a 
punishment of no small moment in those days when the 
writing of a book was such a laborious affair) ; and even im- 
prisoned in a monastery. Toward the middle of the twelfth 
century, this right to teach was considerably abridged, and 
as one Catholic writer expressed it, " the Church, justly 
alarmed by the reprehensible undertakings of certain impru- 
dent doctors, exercised its right, and began to demand the 
license." ^ As formally established by the Council of Latran 

1 TniiiRT, op. cit., I., p. 255. 

2 Ibid., p. 273. 

3 RiANCET, Histoire de I 'instruction publique et de la liberti de I 'enseigne- 
ment en France, I., pp. 188-189. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 21 

in 1179, this signified merely a permission to teach, licentia 
(locendi. Since this authorization had to be obtained from 
the bishop or some other accredited authority, the church 
was thus in possession of a kind of brake that could be 
applied to the intellectual forces when the centrifugal move- 
ment seemed likely to become dangerously strong. In Paris 
the chancellor of the cathedral was invested with the power 
of granting the license. He was sworn to grant it only to 
" capable " individuals, but unfortunately we have no means 
of defining the limitations of this term. At all events it 
was intended merely to safeguard the rights of the church, 
and at the time of its inception was applied essentially to 
the field of theology, although in the next century this was 
extended over the arts work as well. Hence the origin of 
the degree granting power of the chancellor. 

Meanwhile the schools on Mount Ste. Genevifeve became 
more and more numerous as the century rolled along ; they 
drifted farther and farther away from direct 
control of the cathedral authorities, although of the Schools 
two thirds of them were taught by ecclesias- ^'^^ ^^^ 

Teachers 

tics ; the study of dialectic absorbed all their 
interest almost to the exclusion of the old subjects, and they 
carried it to ridiculous extremes, so that John of Salisbury 
was moved to exclaim : " The masters of our day, in order to 
parade their own knowledge, accustom their auditors not to 
understand them, and they imagine that Minerva has placed 
all her secrets on inaccessible heights. . . . First they tax 
immoderately the feeble comprehension of their hearers; 
then they throw the natural order of ideas into confusion 
and make a special effort to turn things topsy turvy. I 
might almost say they put the cart before the horse ; then 
they seem to study how to contradict the thought even of 
the author they are explaining." ^ The schools were drawn 
closer and closer together through a community of interest 
until the ties of the intellectual life became stronger than 



^t>^ 



1 Quoted in Th^ry, op. cit., I., pp. 285-286. 



22 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

any racial antipathies that may have existed, and we find the 
cosmopolitan groups of teachers and students in the embryo 
nations making common cause against the common enemy — 
the Parisian populace. In 1200 Philip Augustus took the 
part of the students against the provost of the city and 
granted them the right of trial before the episcopal instead 
of the civil court, a privilege that M. Compayr^ has said 
" may be considered as the first official charter of the Univer- 
sity of Paris." ^ During the next fifteen years a series of 
bulls issued by Innocent III. recognized the masters and 
students of Paris as a corporation with all the rights and 
privileges belonging thereto within the meaning of the 
Eoman law, strengthened their position in their contests 
with the chancellor, and formally forbade the latter to with- 
hold the license from anybody that the masters recommended 
to him.2 

Thus the organization subsequently known as the Univer- 
sity of Paris came into existence. Originally composed of 
Organization ^^^ masters of the different schools, or rather 
of the of the four disciplines,^ the university later 

University, differentiated itself into faculties and nations. 
It was not until about the middle of the thirteenth century 
that this nomenclature assumed its modern connotation.^ At 
that time the clear-cut distinction between the faculties is 
plainly shown by a letter of Alexander IV., wherein he 
threatens the arts students and their rectors with excom- 
munication unless they stop interfering in the affairs of the 
theological faculty.^ 

Almost from the first the arts faculty necessarily took a 
subordinate position with reference to the others. In fact, it 
was naturally looked upon as preparatory to theology, law 

1 C0MPATUlf5, op. cit., p. 78. 

^ Denifle et Chatelain, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, I., p. 
62 et seq. 

' Denifle, Die Entstehung der Universitdten des Mittelalters his 1400, 
p. 69. 

* Ihid., pp. 71-72, 106. 

6 Denifle et Chatelain, op. cit., p. 383. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 23 

(canon), and medicine. Nevertheless, in so far as dialectics 
and philosophy formed a part of the subject-matter, these 
arts schools certainly came within the scope 
of what is now known as superior instruc- The Arts 
tion. But on the other hand, as the instruction the^ SeconXry 
dealt with the ordinary grammar, rhetoric, and Character of 
mathematics (and undoubtedly there was much 
of this elementary work), they belonged to the middle 
part of the present secondary course. Their students were 
allowed to enter younger and younger, and in place of Abe- 
lard's lectures for the comprehension of men, we find the 
lessons adapted to youths of fourteen or even less. If the 
student had learned to read and write (of course in Latin), 
and had mastered the elements of Latin grammar, he was 
deemed competent to begin the study of logic, and was con- 
sequently eligible for the university. The sole other condi- 
tion of admission seems to have been that the young student 
should attach himself to some master,^ who was thus in a 
measure responsible for him. It appeared later that one of 
the functions of this master was to claim his young charge at 
the provost's when he fell into the toils of the law.^ When one 
considers the youth of many of these students, the wisdom 
of this precaution immediately becomes apparent. In fact, 
throughout most of the early years there was constant strife 
between town and gown, and this friction was the immedi- 
ate cause of many of the early privileges granted by the 
kings. The crowd of students brought too much revenue to 
the city and nation for the king to treat them with disdain, 
and so for the first years at least the university could almost 
always count on the royal support. 

Let us pause for a moment and see what these mediaeval 
students were studying in this University of Paris. The 
earliest curriculum is that outlined by Robert de Courgon 
in 1215.^ This practically confines the work of the ordinary 

1 Nullus sit scholaris Parisius, qui certum magistrum non habeat. Statute 
of Robert de Courqon, 1215, Denifle et Chatelain, op. cit., I., p. 79. 

2 Thukot, op. cit., p. 38. 

3 "Et quod legant libros Aristotelis de dialectica tam de veteri quam de 



24 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

courses to certain parts of Aristotle's logic (in either the ver- 
sion of Porphyry or Boethius), some other works of Boethius, 
and the whole of Priscian's grammar. For the 

First 

Curriculum extraordinary courses (which could be given 
of tlie Arts only on holidays) we find the fourth book of 
^' Boethius's Topics, Donatus's Be Barbarismo, 
Aristotle's Ethics, and the subjects of the quadriviutn. Aris- 
totle's Ifetaphysics, and Natural Philosophy, together with 
the writings of certain specified heretics, were strictly ex- 
cluded from all courses. Save for some rather unimportant 
revisions, this remained substantially the program until the 
advent of the Kenaissance. 

It was during this early period that we find the beginnings 
of our modern degrees. Mr. Laurie has aptly traced the 

parallelism between the degree process in the 
Degrees : The ay^n^ of ^rts and the mastership in the guild of 

the crafts. This is merely carrying out further 
the analogy already pointed out in suggesting that the uni- 
versity and the guild were both the evolution of a common 
feeling — the need for organization. The lowest degree, sub- 
sequently called the baccalaureate, was for a long time 
known as the determinance. It was formally established in 
1275 1 and remained practically the same until toward the 
end of the fourteenth century. A candidate must be at least 
fourteen years old and must have studied logic for two years 
at Paris or have had equivalent work at another university. 
The examination consisted of three parts: (1) a disputation 
before his master and his classmates some time before Christ- 
mas ; (2) an examination shortly afterward conducted by a 
special examining board of the nation ; and (3) a public dis- 
putation in Lent. This determinance, then, concerned only 
the nations of the faculty of arts (although it was subse- 

nova in scolis ordinarie et non ad cursum. Legant etiam in scolis ordinarie 
duos Priscianos ad alteram ad minus. . . . Noii legantur libri Aristotelis de 
methafisica et de naturale philosophia, nee summe de eisdem. ..." Denifle 
ET CuATELAiN, op. ciL, I., pp. 78-79. See also id., pp. 228, 278. 
1 Denifle et Chatelain. op. ciL, p. 531. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 25 

quently adopted by the other faculties), and there were minor 
differences of procedure among the various nations. The 
name "baccalaureate" was not applied until the fifteenth 
century. 

As we have already seen, the licence or permission to teach 
antedates by many years the corporate existence of the uni- 
versity. Originally it was granted solely on rpj^^ License 
the initiative and at the pleasure of the Chan- aud Master- 
cellor of the Cathedral. By the year 1213 1 he '^'P- 
could not refuse the license to any candidate whom a com- 
mittee of the masters declared worthy, although even then 
this question of worth was not altogether beyond the control 
of the chancellor, for he appointed three of the six masters 
that composed the commission. This necessarily presupposes 
that there was some sort of an examination, else how could this 
committee inform itself sufficiently about the merit of the 
candidate to recommend him for the distinction ? Some- 
time before the year 1255 the Chancellor of the Cathedral 
had further been compelled to share his power of granting 
the license with the Chancellor of Ste. Genevieve, for in that 
year Alexander IV. issued two bulls, one to the Chancellor 
of the Cathedral and the other to the Chancellor of Ste. Gene- 
vieve, couched in identical terms with reference to the grant- 
ing of the license. It is interesting to note that the second 
of these is the first document in the archives of the university 
that makes mention of the latter officer.^ " The candidate 
had to swear that he was twenty-one years old, was not mar- 
ried, that he had passed his determinance at Paris or at some 
other university that had at least twelve regents, that he had 
sustained at least two public disputations before several mas- 
ters in the rue de Fouarre,^ and that he had studied in the 
faculty of arts at Paris for three years. The time spent on 
grammar was not to be counted ki these three years.* These 

1 Denifle et Chatelain, op. cit., I., p. 531. 

2 lUd., p. 299. 

s A street in the Latin Quarter just across the south branch of the Seine 
from Notre Dame. Most of the arts work of the university was given here. 
* Thurot, op. cit., p. 52. 



26 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

conditions were subsequently considerably modified, but they 
included the most important provisions which prevailed about 
the middle of the first century of the university's existence. 
To become master of arts it was only necessary for the licen- 
tiate to be received formally into the corporation of masters. 
The two essential features of this ceremony seemed to be 
that the candidate should take a solemn oath of allegiance 
and obedience to the statutes of the university, the faculty, 
and the nation, and that he should furnish a banquet to 
his fellow masters. After an elaborate ceremonial he was 
thenceforth a full-fledged teacher of the university. The 
mastership was the highest title of the arts faculty, for it 
was not until long afterward that the doctorate came into 
vogue in that faculty. 

In the meantime various colleges had been springing up 
in Paris. According to Vallet de Viriville,^ three were 
founded before the end of the twelfth century, 
^olTe es° eighteen during the thirteenth, and forty dur- 
ing the fourteenth.^ But these earliest insti- 
tutions did not correspond at all to our present notions of a 
college. They were practically no more than boarding-houses, 
each with a resident master who conducted his charges to the 
public schools in the rue du Fouarre,^ or in the case of older 
students the colleges were a kind of scholarship foundation 
for prospective ecclesiastics. It was not until after the 
middle of the thirteenth century, 1257,* that Eobert Sorbon 
established the first college for lay students in theology. 
These colleges, then, intended originally for students from 
the same district, province, or nation, owed their foundation 
to public munificence, private benefaction, or as was true in 
the case of Sorbon and others, to a combination of the two. 
A house was bought or built, a fund set aside for its main- 
tenance, a few poor scholars gathered together, and the col- 

1 Vallet de Viriville, Histoire dc l' instruction en Europe et principale- 
ment en France, p. 166, note. 

2 For partial list of these, see Appendix C. 
8 Crevier, op. cit., I., pp. 271-272. 

* Denifle et Chatelain, op. cit., I., p. 349. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 27 

lege opened its doors. As time went on and more and more 
of the younger students were gathered in the boarding-houses, 
or pedagogies, as they were called, it seemed more convenient 
to keep these youngsters in their pensionnats and teach them 
there, than to conduct them to the public schools in the rue 
du Fouarre. The result was that these latter schools became 
less and less popular, and finally went out of existence alto- 
gether. Then we find the elementary stages of the French 
secondary school as it exists in the lycdes and colleges to-day. 
Harcourt, the present lyc^e Saint-Louis (1180), Montaigne 
(1314), and many others, however, were apparently founded 
as pure secondary schools,^ while some, like Navarre (1304), 
had students of both grades. The establishment of these 
colleges simplified the disciplinary problems of the arts 
faculty in no small degree, but the fundamental principle of 
student control had been diametrically changed. The condi- 
tion of almost absolute license was replaced by one of clois- 
tral repression, and this same notion still prevails in many of 
the French schools to-day. 

During all this period the church was still chiefly respon- 
sible for teaching the elements of learning through the mon- 
astic and cathedral schools. Each cathedral r^^^ 
had its school where it taught not only the "Grammar" 
boys who were destined for the clergy, but Schools. 
also the choir boys who assisted in the church services. In 
the case of the cathedral school at Paris these latter had 
two masters, one for music, and the other for grammar, 
whence it happened that the grand chantre, or precentor, 
was put in charge of the instruction of the lay pupils, so to 
speak.2 As the city expanded and schools were set up in 
the other parishes, the jurisdiction of the precentor was 
extended over them all. Eventually we find the Chancellor 
of the Cathedral at the head of the university instruction, 
and the precentor at the head of the lower instruction (for 
at that time there was no distinction between secondary and 

1 CoMPAYRi, op. cit., p. 194. 

2 JoLY, TraitU historique des Scales ipiscopales et eccUsiastiques, p. 238. 



28 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

elementary schools). Such was the power of the precentor 
that without his authorization nobody could open a school 
outside the colleges of the university, that is, a " grammar " 
school.^ It was to these schools, then, that the scholars 
(scholarship holders) of the earlier colleges were sent for 
their elementary instruction in grammar and the other sub- 
jects until they were ready for philosophy.^ The curricu- 
lum ^ of these parish schools was limited to reading, writ- 
ing, grammar, a little church reckoning, and church music. 
It is almost unnecessary to observe that this instruction 
was all in the Latin language. The grammar of those days 
embraced all that we understand by the word to-day together 
with the reading and interpretation of the poets, or in other 
words, literature. The curriculum of some of these grammar 
schools was gradually advanced until it also included the 
ordinary rhetoric of the time, which was chieily confined to 
the formulas of letter writing; the elements of arithmetic, 
then known as algorism ; and some very elementary work 
in logic based upon the Summulae of Peter of Spain. It 
can readily be seen that this presented considerably more 
difficulty than it would to-day, for the pupils copied all their 
own books themselves and then committed them to memory 
verbatim even before they could understand the subject- 
matter. In any case, it was all completed by the time the 
boys were twelve or thirteen years of age, when they were 
ready for the logic of the arts faculty of the university. 
Gefson, in the regulations he drew up for the cathedral 
school at Paris, gives us some notion of the discipline there 
as well as in the pedagogies.* Each pupil was supposed to 
act as a monitor over his comrades and to denoimce them 

1 JOLY, op. cit., p. 304. As late as 1678, the precentor was having trouble 
•with various individuals who were teaching without this authorization on the 
ground that they were teaching "literature and foreign languages," p. 495 
et seq. 

2 Ibid., p. 267. 

8 Thurot, op. cit., pp. 93-94, 

* Gerson, Opera IV., pp. 717-720, trans, in KxJifz, Pddagogisehe Schriften 
von Johannes Gersons, p. 146. 



SECOND REVIVAL OF LEARNING. SCHOLASTICISM 29 

for violations of the rules of conduct, such as speaking French, 
swearing, lying, rising late, talking in church. Whoever 
failed to denounce his fellow was subject to the same pun- 
ishment as the malefactor. The whip seems to have been 
the favorite instrument of punishment. In fact, one writer 
facetiously observes : " As regards discipline, the whips of 
the fifteenth century were twice as long as those of the four- 
teenth; . . . the whip has driven ignorance from the four 
corners of Europe." ^ 

Such in general, then, was the contribution of scholasti- 
cism to practical education — nothing that could really be 
called a system of education save perhaps in , . ^ t 

'' ^ ■*■ Ancient In- 

the higher field. The universities had come into stitutions 
being; they had rapidly advanced in power, and Modern 
privileges, and position; they had displaced 
forever the episcopal and monastic schools as centres of 
general learning, and these latter classes of schools "were 
completely effaced from the scene of history." ^ Their de- 
scendants, however, the parish schools, continued for long 
afterward to provide the youth with the elements of learning. 
The field of secondary education was covered in part by 
these schools, and in part by the arts faculty of the univer- 
sity, first through its own courses in the rue du Fouarre, 
and later through the instruction given in the colleges and 
pensionnats, where by the end of the fifteenth century the 
greater part of the arts regents were teaching.^ The certi- 
fication of teachers had alread)^ begun in the license of the 
chancellor, and the reform of Cardinal d'Estouteville in 
1452 marks the beginning of the present system of inspec- 
tion. At that time he ordered the faculty of arts each year 
to choose four masters from each nation to inspect the col- 
leges and pedagogies and to reform therein whatever they 
found amiss in morals, food, instruction, administration, or 
scholastic discipline in general.* So, too, during this period 

1 MoNTEiL, Histoire dcs Fran^ais des divers Mats, II., p. 308. 

2 MaItre, op. cit., p. 170. 

8 ThiJ.rt, op. cit., I., p. 391. 

* Deniflb et Chatelain, op. cit.. IV., p. 725. 



30 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

we see the colleges beginning what is to-day the traditional 
secondary instruction in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. 
Finally, we find an explanation of the present system of the 
French lyc^es, for as a French educator has expressed it: 
" The universities had made a great experiment in the day 
school for students of all ages. And it must be thoroughly 
recognized that this experiment, which people seem to wish 
to renew in our day, has failed, since the Middle Ages, as 
they were ending, turned into another path, and even re- 
placed by the strictest sort of discipline the liberty of other 
days." 1 

1 CoMPATR^, op. ciL, p. 197. 



CHAPTER III 

THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 

The fifteenth century marks one of the great epochs in 
world history, for it chronicles the differentiation between 
the old days and the new, between the Middle 
Ages and the modern times. This distinction j^enj'ssance 
is even more striking in the domain of the in- 
tellectual life than in the political world. In the former, 
scholasticism had been the dominant power for well nigh 
three hundred and fifty years. Eeceived with great acclaim 
at first, for it had been a potent force in dispelling the gloom 
of the dark ages, it had expanded and developed far beyond 
the point where it had anything vital to contribute to the 
world's betterment. It was now no more than a desiccated 
body with the substance absorbed by the most barren formal- 
ism. The emancipation from this formalistic domination is 
one of the debts the world owes to Italy, for she had been 
the first to feel the iuvigoration of the new life, and thence 
it had been transmitted to all the world. The fall of Con- 
stantinople, the invention of printing, and the discovery of 
the new world, grouped within a comparatively brief period, 
each had its share in disseminating the new knowledge. 
Without the assistance of these great factors the Eenais- 
sance might have been born and have perished within the 
narrow limits of the Italian peninsula. 

Of all the countries of Western Europe, France was one 
of the last to feel the inspiration of the new movement, 
perhaps because the old scholasticism kept such a tenacious 
hold on the University of Paris, the centre of its intellectual 
being, perhaps because the frozen Alps formed a non- 



32 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

conducting medium between the warm life of the south 
land and the hardly less impulsive nature of its Latin 
neighbor on the north. At all events, the movement was 
well under way in both Germany and the Netherlands 
before France felt the impulse. It was the expedition of 
Charles VIII. in the last decade of the fifteenth century that 
first attracted France definitely toward Italy. At that time 
the French king acquired or appropriated everything portable 
that fancy prompted and sent it all to his chateau at Am- 
boise. Thus " Italy conquered the French from the day 
they penetrated there, and held them by a thousand delicate 
ties." ^ The years following mark the very culmination of 
the Eenaissance in Italy. Eaphael, Leonardo da Vinci, 
Michael Angelo, Titian, Andrea del Sarto, Machiavelli, 
Ariosto, were at the very flood tide of their renown. This 
was the era of individual achievement, of intellectual eman- 
cipation, of a real re-birth as contrasted with the tendency 
toward organization, toward concerted movement, toward 
mere resuscitation of the past that had formed the dominant 
note of the scholastic period. Although France turned ^ 
toward the new life, she did not do so entirely in a whole- 
souled manner; the middle class showed a characteristic 
reluctance to accept innovations and clung tenaciously to the 
old traditions; the universities and colleges ^ did not will- 
ingly surrender their old methods which scholasticism had 
so long dictated. Besides, too, after the heretical doctrines 
of Luther began to spread abroad every humanist was more 
or less an object of suspicion. 

Etienne Dolet, " the martyr of the Eenaissance," gives a 
vivid contemporary account of the spread of the new ideas 
over Europe : ^ 

1 Lemonnier, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, V., 1, p. 159. 

"^ By 1500 there were fifteen universities in France, and in Paris alone 
between forty and fifty colleges. See Appendix D for list of these institutions. 

* Commentariorum linguae latinae, tonius I., Stephano Doleto Gallo Au- 
relio autore. Lugduni, apud Seb. Gryphium, 1536, Col. 1155. Quoted by 
BuissoN, Rapport au Ministre de I'instriLction publique, Frd/ace A Repertoire 
des ouvragcs p^dagogiques du XVF silcle, pp. viii.-x. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 33 

" Barbarism reigned everywhere in Europe. Suddenly 
Laurent Valla, supported by some valiant companions in 
arms, assailed it in front. . . . Soon the combat spread, and 
from every country rushed the reinforcements for the army 
of letters. . . . 

" This army of letters assembled from all the corners of 
Europe made such assaults on the camp of the enemy that 
finally barbarism has no longer any refuge. It 
has long since disappeared from Italy, it is '^^onhT^*^ 
gone from Germany, England is saved from it, Renaissance: 
it has fled from Spain, it is banished from ^try AccS". 
France. There is no longer any city in Europe 
that will shelter the monster. Everywhere learning is more 
honored than it has ever been. The study of all the arts is 
flourishing. Through learning men are led back to the study 
that they have so long neglected. Now man learns to know 
himself ; now he walks in the full light of day instead of 
groping hopelessly through the darkness; now man really 
lifts himself above the animal through the mind that he can 
cultivate and through the language that he can develop." 
Dolet wrote thus enthusiastically in happy ignorance of the 
fate that was awaiting him, for only ten years later he gave 
up his life in the Place Maubert, Paris, for prematurely pro- 
claiming a freedom that was not yet accomplished, mute but 
incontrovertible evidence that this barbarism was not yet 
overcome. 

From the foundation of the College Royal, the future 
College de France, by Francis I. in 1530, we may confidently 
assert that the progress of the Eenaissance was 
fairly under way. This college, really an in- qoJqIq 
stitution of superior instruction, was established 
as a protest against the ansemic scholasticism and the 
narrow religious dogmatism as represented in the university 
teaching of those days. It was founded as an association 
where there was full opportunity for independent thought 
and research outside the domain of theology in distinction 
from the close corporation of subservient minds that made 

3 



\ 



34 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

up the body of the real university teachers. The first two 
chairs founded were those of Greek and Hebrew, followed 
some four years later by one of Latin, and very shortly by a 
still wider expansion of the scope of the intellectual work. 
Here then was a body of teachers known as lecteurs roycmx, 
paid directly from the royal treasury and no longer depen- 
dent on the fees collected from their students. This again 
militated in favor of free and imtrammeled thought which 
was the cardinal principle of the foundation. This institu- 
tion aroused bitter animosity on the part of the university on 
the ground of encroachment on its hereditary rights and 
privileges, but the opposition came to nought as it did again 
less than half a century later in the case of the Jesuits. Of 
a truth " the eldest daughter of the king of France " ^ had 
already begun to lose her monopoly of the field of education. 

The chair of Greek founded at the College of France did 
not represent the beginning of that study at Paris, for Greek 

The Study of ^^^ already been taught there long before the 
Greek at time of Fraucis I. Previous to the fall of 
Constantinople, the study of the ancient lan- 
guages had for many years been much neglected. Even 
Cicero and Virgil were as completely forgotten as Sophocles 
and Homer. In 1450 one Gregory of Tifernus, a fugitive 
Greek, had made his way to Paris and opened a school for 
the study of his native language.^ Some years later the 
university itself called Greek teachers from Italy, but the 
chief credit for the revival of the interest in Greek in France 
is due to the great scholar Budteus (1467-1540). One of 
the foremost humanists of his day, at one time the friend of 
Erasmus, he discovered anew the Greek and Latin civiliza- 
tions through the study of the languages and the writers in 
their original form and tlius contributed immensely toward 
a knowledge of the life and times of the ancients. In fact, 

1 " La fiUe ainee du roi do France," a name bestowed npon the university 
by Francis I. in 1515 and subsequently in quite common use. Cf. Pasquier, 
Rcchcrchcs dc la France, p. 811. 

^ KiLiAN, Tableau historique dc Vinstruction secondaire en France, p. 19. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 35 

Budseus was largely responsible for the foundation of the 
College of France, for he not only suggested the plan to 
Francis I., but he continued his importunities until he saw 
the professorships actually established.^ It was well on 
toward the middle of the sixteenth century in the little 
college of Ave Maria under the direction of Eamus that we 
find Greek and Latin authors for the first time studied 
together in the University of Paris.^ 

The situation at the college of Sainte-Barbe about 1500 (at 
that time one of the youngest colleges of the university) is 
probably typical of the general conditions then 
prevailing in Paris.^ The organization of the p^.'^P'^^^^ 
sixteenth century college was decidedly looser at the Begin- 
than it is to-day. At the head was a principal "^?g °^ ^^ 
whose control was chiefly exercised over the Century. 
hoursiers or scholarship holders. We must not 
forget that when the colleges were first founded within the 
university these scholars formed the only class of pupils, but 
as time went on modifications supervened, and at this period 
we find the character of the student body considerably 
changed. Among the resident pupils were (1) the convic- 
teurs or portionistes, regular boarding pupils, (2) the cam- 
Sristes, usually young men of wealth who lived at the college 
in the charge of a particular master. These latter students 
provided their own food and service, and were dependent up- 
on the principal merely for their rooms, fire, and instruction. 
Not more than five or six of these camSristes at the most 
were under a single master, and while they 
lived in the college they formed a group quite 
apart. Among the non-resident pupils were (1) the mar- 
tinets, "the swallows," and (2) the galoches, so-called from 
the foot covering they wore in winter as a protection against 

1 It is interesting to note that at one time Erasmus was considered as 
director of the undertaking and was actually approached about 1517 to that 
effect. Although in hearty sympathy with the plan, the Dutch scholar re- 
fused the offer. Lemonnier, op, cit., V., pt. 1, p. 291. 

2 Waddington, Ramus, sa vie, ses4crits, et ses opinions, p. 33. 

8 Based chiefly on Quichekat, Histoirede Sainte-Barbe, I., pp. 73-92. 



36 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the mud of the Latin Quarter. The martinets, forming the 
larger part of the student body, were often altogether un- 
known to the principal, for inasmuch as they paid their fees 
directly to their masters, they never came in contact with 
their principal until they presented themselves for their 
degrees. The galoches were chiefly students of mature years 
who wandered about where fancy prompted, making their 
own arrangements with the masters whose courses they 
frequented. Finally there was a sixth class of students, the 
domestics, whether general servants of the college or private 
servants of the masters or of the cameristes. These servants 
were almost invariably poor students who were working their 
way along toward an education as best they could. It is 
interesting to note that Kamus was for a time in this ca- 
pacity at the College of Navarre. 

The day of the college student began then very early in 
the morning, much earlier even than in France at the present 

time. At five o'clock class work was already 
of Work under way. This first period lasted an hour 

and then everybody went to mass. After that 
came breakfast, then a short intermission until eight o'clock, 
the time of the principal lesson of the morning. This was a 
full two-hour period and was followed by another hour of 
discussion or review of the preceding lesson. At eleven 
o'clock the resident students all assembled in the refectory 
for dinner. Although they had but one meat course and one 
vegetable course, the repast was extended over a whole hour, 
for it was preceded by the reading of a chapter from the 
Bible or from the life of one of the saints and was followed 
by the principal's announcements either of public reproof or 
commendation. Then came an hour's quiz on the morning 
lecture, followed by an hour of rest. The college authorities 
took good care not to leave their students any idle time, for 
this " rest period " was taken up with a public reading from 
one of the poets or the orators. The principal lesson of the 
afternoon lasted from three to five o'clock, followed, as in the 
morning, by discussion. From six to seven, supper, and then 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 37 

another hour's quiz on the work of the afternoon. This was 
followed by a vesper service, and the curfew rang at nine 
o'clock. The masters and some specially authorized students 
were permitted to sit up until eleven o'clock. The only real 
recreation was on Tuesday and Thursday between the close 
of the afternoon class and supper time. Although holidays 
were then much more numerous than now, these did not 
interfere with the work, for as in the early days of the uni- 
versity, they were given over to subjects outside the regular 
program, the " extraordinary lectures " of former times. 

It is not surprising that Erasmus, Eabelais, Eamus, Mon- 
taigne, and Vives found material for ridicule in the face of 
such exercises as the following, chronicled by 
the last named writer:! CkssRoom 

Master. Child, tell me, in what month did 
Virgil die ? 

Pupil. In the month of September, master. 

M. In what place ? 

P. At Brindisi. 

M, What day of September ? 

F. The ninth before the Calends. 

M. Eascal ! Do you want to dishonor me before all these 
gentlemen ? Bring me my ferule, draw back your sleeve, 
and hold out your, hand for having said the ninth instead 
of the tenth. See that you answer better. 

M. How did Alexander raise himself when he fell to the 
ground in first setting foot upon the soil of Asia ? 

P. In leaning on his hands and raising his head. 

The sixteenth century was a period of enormous educa- 
tional activity. A mere cursory examination of M. Buis- 
son's Repertoire des ouvrages pedagogiques du „ a-^ r 
XVP siecle, an explanatory catalogue of the Educational 
books of that period found to-day in the li- Thought, 
braries of France, containing six hundred and fifty pages, 
will give some idea of the immense amount of thought 
1 Quoted by Qiticherat, op. cit., I., pp. 88-89. 



38 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

devoted to education in that century, a period second only 
to that of the last few years. From Germany we find the 
names of Luther, Melanchthon, and Sturm ; from Holland, 
Erasmus; from England, Ascham ; from Spain, Vives; from 
France, Eabelais, Montaigne, and Eamus. Of these three 
French writers, it was Eamus that left the deepest impress 
upon the actual education of his time. Eabelais with his 
keen satire and his advocacy of scientific education, and 
Montaigne, in his quieter, more dignified fashion with his 
insistency that the man should first of all be a man and 
subsequently a doctor, a lawyer, a man of the world, were 
both of them essentially theorists, whereas Eamus was not 
only a far-sighted educational thinker, but furthermore a 
practical teacher. To borrow a fine expression from M. 
Buisson, Eabelais and Montaigne were both "teachers of 
genius, but teachers by accident." ^ 

Eamus, as professor of rhetoric and later as principal of 
the College of Presles, instituted important reforms there 
and succeeded in building up a flourishing 
institution where before had been only con- 
sistent mediocrity.'* The most significant of the changes he 
introduced were (1) the union of the study of eloquence and 
philosophy in the same class room, he taking the rhetoric in 
the afternoon and his colleague Talon the philosophy in the 
morning ; and (2) the freedom with which he discussed the 
text. To criticize Quintilian, much less Cicero, was almost 
sacrilege. This presumption brought him widespread no- 
toriety in the university world and even persecution, espe- 
cially since he was already suspected of lukewarmness toward 
certain orthodox theological doctrines. Despite the machin- 
ations of his enemies he was appointed professor royal at the 
College of France in 1551, and there he soon found other 
independent thinkers that shared his religious doubts. In 
his suggestions to the king in 1562 on the reform of the 
university, he diagnoses the situation with wise acumen and 

1 Buisson, op cit., p. xiv. 

2 Waddington, Ramus, sa vie, ses Merits, et ses opinions, p. 64 et seq. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 39 

advises drastic changes. The most significant for us are the 
suggestion that in order to reduce the cost of education for 
the students, there should be established in jj-g 

each faculty a certain number of professors Educational 
with fixed salaries paid by the State who Reforms. 
could thus dispense with the necessity of student fees,^ and 
the recommendation that the colleges confine themselves to 
grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and that the university should 
teach philosophy, law, medicine, and theology .2 In other 
words, he proposed a sharp demarcation between the fields 
of secondary and superior education, a suggestion that was 
not adopted until after the Eevolution. Some of his other 
ideas in regard to enriching and extending the university 
curriculum (in the arts faculty by the addition of courses in 
mathematics and physics) were carried out in the great re- 
form of Henry lY. Eamus himself did not live to see them 
realized, for he perished in the sanguinary days immediately 
following Saint Bartholomew's. 

At the time of Eamus's projected reforms, a real new 
birth seemed to be taking place all over France. He 
himself bears witness to the position of the 
University of Paris in the world of letters, for gance and the 
he says " that no one is considered to have had Reformation 
a liberal education who has not studied at Together. 
Paris." ^ The numerous educational writings 
have already been noted. The principles of the Eeforma- 
tion had made marvellous progress throughout the length 
and breadth of the land so that Protestant colleges were 
springing up in great numbers. But the dark clouds of 
religious strife had already begun to gather, and the civil 
wars of the League put an end to aU these fair promises. 
Thirty years after the period of Francis I., these Protestant 
colleges had practically all disappeared, and the reactionists 

^ Avertissements sur la reformation de Vmiiversit6 de Paris au Boy, 1562 
(An undated reprint paged 117-163), p. 123 et seq. 

2 Ibid., pp. 139-140. 

3 Ramus, op. cit., p. 158. 



40 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

were everywhere dominant, at what cost to France one can 
only conjecture. " One may believe," says a French writer, 
"that Protestantism, if it had triumphed in France, if it 
had not been hunted out during the religious wars before 
being exterminated by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
would have given us what we have hardly obtained to-day 
after three hundred years of struggle and effort, a strong 
organization of primary instruction." ^ 

From about the middle of the century we see an im- 
portant linguistic change, for French begins to displace Latin 
Reaction ^^ ^^^ language of scholars. In 1555 Ramus 
against published his Dialectic in French, and fol- 
manism. j^^g^^ j^ seven years later with his Beform 
Plan for the University and his French Grammar both in 
the vernacular. In 1565 one Henri Estienne published a 
treatise on the Similarity hetween the French and the Greek 
Language. In 1576 Louis le Roy, one of the professors 
of the Royal College (the college of France) expounded the 
orations of Demosthenes in French rather than in Latin, 
the medium of interpretation hitherto employed.^ 

In the meantime a new organization had been created 
that was destined to play a leading part in the educational 
history of France for nearly two centuries. 
This was the Society of Jesus, commonly 
known as the Jesuits. Legally recognized by Papal bull 
in 1540, Loyola and his little band went forth to defend 
and to extend the Catholic faith, to lead the Counter Ref- 
ormation against the rapidly increasing forces of Protes- 
tantism. Beset by enemies within as well as without 
the church, they nevertheless persisted until, supported in 
large measure by the military character of their organiza- 
tion, they had fairly hewn out a place for themselves. 

1 CoMPATRi^, Histoire critique des doctrines de Vidiccation en France depjiis 
le scizieme siiclc, pp. 457-458. "Written in 1879, before the passage of the 
great fundamental laws which underlie the fine primary school system of 
France to-day. 

2 Lemonnier, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, V., pt. 2, pp. 2R7-288. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 41 

From the very first they wisely recognized that the most 
effective way of accomplishing their ends was to lay hold 
upon the youth — not all the youth, but only the most 
promising of them, the probable future intellectual leaders 
— and to mould them during their most impressionable 
period, the years of adolescence. " As defined by Jesuit 
authors, the education of the youth means the gratuitous 
teaching of letters and science, from almost the first begin- 
nings of Grammar up to the culminating science of Sacred 
Theology, and that for boys and students of every kind, 
in schools open to all." ^ 

Loyola and his first companions had been fellow students 
together at Paris, and thither the Jesuits turned their 
attention. After years of struggle they estab- 
lished themselves there, and in 1563 opened College of 

' ^ Clermont. 

the College of Clermont, later known as 
Louis-le-Grand and to-day one of the most important lyc^es 
of Paris. Here then was the university again compelled 
to share its time-honored rights as an educational institu- 
tion, but the College of Clermont proved to be a doughtier 
antagonist than the Eoyal College. The instruction in 
the new college was not fundamentally different from that 
in the other colleges. It reiterated the humanistic emphasis 
upon Latin and introduced the study of Greek, but it 
rejected absolutely all spontaneity, all tendency toward 
individuality. The striking innovation, however, was the 
gratuitous instruction, and this was perhaps the chief reason 
why the university could not compete with it successfully, 
for the professors of the older colleges were still forced to 
exact fees from their students. In the meantime the 
College of Clermont grew and waxed strong in spite of the 
persistent efforts of the university to drive out this vigorous 
young rival. So keen was the competition that by 1579 
the greater part of the university colleges were half empty 
and scarcely one fifth of the number then existing had not 
been compelled to rent their rooms to persons outside the 

^ Hughes, Loyola and the educational system of the Jesuits, p. 43. 



42 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

student body.^ In fact, this competition together with the 
disasters accompanying the Wars of the League worked 
such havoc among the other colleges that sooner or later 
all of them were forced to close their doors, and the College 
of Clermont was the only one whose classes were not 
suspended during these terrible years.^ Soon after the 
entry of Henry IV. into Paris in 1594, the Jesuits fell into 
disfavor on account of suspected complicity in the attempt 
upon the king's life, and they were expelled from Paris 
and banished from the realm. Not until after the death of 
Henry IV. in 1610 was the College of Clermont completely 
restored to its old position, and it was eight years later 
before the Jesuits were finally triumphant in undisputed 
power in their college with the opposition from the univer- 
sity practically broken. 

The success of the Jesuits has been due in no small degree 
to the military character of their discipline, to their implicit 
obedience of their superiors. When the Batio 
Success of studiorum appeared in its final form in 1599, 
it undoubtedly embodied the most advanced 
pedagogical ideas of the time as applied to the aim of the 
Jesuit system of education. It represented the best work of 
the most learned of the order for years, and they skilfully 
adapted from Sturm and the other humanists as well as 
from current university practice whatever they found service- 
able for their purposes. Everything was carefully prescribed 
even to the minutest detail of method, and no deviation was 
allowed. When to nicety of method are added determina- 
tion, enthusiasm, and a subordination of personal interests, 
we find little difficulty in accounting for the success of a 
movement which was primarily religious but incidentally 
educational, especially when we call to mind the utter dis- 
organization of the forces opposed to it. 

In 1594 Henry IV. found Paris in a state of almost utter 
demoralization. Of the forty-three colleges of the university 

1 QvicuwR.A.'V, Histoirede Sainte-Barhc, II., p. 63. 

2 £mond, Eistoire du ColUge dc Louis-le-Grand, p. 67. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 43 

nominally in existence at that time,^ not one was carrying 
on its work. The students were scattered; the buildings 
were closed or were serving as barracks or „, ,. , 

'^ iliducational 

stables; 2 the outlook which had been so Condition 
auspicious in 1562 was shrouded in gloom ; ^° ^^^^• 
the university was veritably worse off than it had been one 
hundred and fifty years earlier, before the reform of Cardi- 
nal d'Estouteville. 

Almost immediately the king set about a reform of the 
university. It is interesting to trace here the gradual disso- 
lution of the power of the Papacy over the Evolution of 
imiversity, and so over education in general in Civil Control 
France. The university owed its foundation of Education. 
to the pontifical authority, and that power had directed 
exclusively the first two great reforms in its history. In 
1452 the same influence dominated, but Charles VII. had 
appointed parliamentary commissioners to assist the Papal 
legate. At this time, 1595, it is a royal commission that 
controls the situation, but the ecclesiastical authority is 
nominally represented in the person of the Archbishop of 
Bourges as the chairman of the reform body. As we study 
the educational progress in France during the last few years, 
we see that this church influence has now entirely disap- 
peared, like the swing of the pendulum as it were, from 
absolute ecclesiastical control to absolute civil control, and 
this evolution has required almost exactly seven hundred 
years. 

The results of the labors of this commission were pub- 
lished in the Statutes of the University of 1600. The 
influence of the Eenaissance is easily discern- t, ^ ^i^ 
ible, for there is a decided broadening of the University, 
course of study ^ with the emphasis, to be sure, ^^^*^* 
upon the Latin language. Most of the important classic 

1 For the list of colleges in Paris in 1600, see Appendix C. 

2 JoURDAiN, Eistoire de V Universiti de Paris, p. 2. 

' For the course of study of the university colleges in 1600, see Appen- 
dix B. 



44 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

writers are represented (except Martial, Livy, and Tacitus), 
even including Tibullus, Perseus, and Propertius, " and some- 
times Plautus." ^ The place given to Greek in the program 
marks a decided change. Homer, Hesiod, Theocritus, Plato, 
Demosthenes, Isocrates, and Pindar are all specifically men- 
tioned, and Greek shares with Latin the honor of being 
required for promotion to the class in philosophy .^ There is 
a radical departure from the old subserviency to grammar in 
its narrow sense, for of the six hours of lessons per day, only 
one may be given over to precepts and rules, the other five 
being devoted to study and consideration of the original 
texts.^ The old requirement as to the use of Latin as a 
common medium of communication is reiterated, and every 
student is forbidden to use the vernacular within the college 
precincts under penalty of punishment fitting the dereliction,* 
There is no exact indication of the amount of time this 
course would require, but it seems reasonable to suppose it 
must have extended over a period of five years. 

thrcourse. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ *^® ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ specifically indi- 
cated, and it is difficult to see how the " rules 
of grammar, selections from Terence, from the letters of 
Cicero, from the Bucolics of Virgil, and from other authors of 
equally pure Latinity " could be covered in less than one year, 
and " the selections from Sallust, from Caesar's Commentaries, 
from Cicero's De Officiis and his easier Orations, as well as 
Virgil and Ovid, together with a comparative study of Latin 
and Greek grammar " could be completed in less than two 
years. Assuming as we must that the boys were nine years 
old when they began this course, and were already familiar 
with the elements of the Latin, this arrangement corresponds 
fairly clearly with Sturm's course at Strasburg, ^ and further- 
more it agrees exactly with the time allotment of the Eatio 

1 Statua FaculUUis Artium, XXIII., in JouRDAiN, op. cit.. Pieces justifica^ 
lives, p. 4. 

2 Ibid., XXIII., XXXYI. 
8 Ihid., XXV. 

4 Ibid., XVI.-XVII. 

s SciiJiiDT, La vie de Jean Sturm, pp. 286-288. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 45 

studiorum as well as with the course prescribed for the Col- 
lege of Narbonne in 1599. ^ 

On the other hand the work in philosophy is very carefully 
outlined, even to the daily program. It consists of a two- 
year course devoted almost exclusively to Aris- 
totle, but the aim is directed to a mastery of 
the content rather than the form, toward a philosophical 
rather than a grammatical study of the text. ^ In the second 
year of the philosophy course we find the beginning of math- 
ematics as a secondary study, one hour a day being devoted 
to Euclid. 2 

The suggestions of Kamus were again carried out in regard 
to the fees for instruction. These had been steadily creep- 
ing up, until it was almost impossible for a poor student to 
finish his course, much less to complete his work for any of 
the higher degrees. At this time the regents were absolutely 
forbidden under threat of loss of position and possible ad- 
ditional punishment at the hands of a magistrate, to demand 
or even to accept from a student more than five or at most 
six gold crowns per year (between fifty-three and sixty-four 
francs of the money to-day). The charges for the pupils 
below the third class were about four crowns. * It goes with- 
out saying that the price of board was quite apart from these 
fees for instruction, but this was fixed in October of each 
year by a standing committee whose jurisdiction extended 
over all the colleges. ^ 

In August of the second year of the philosophy course, the 
candidates for the baccalaureate were examined on the sub- 
jects of logic, ethics, physics, and metaphysics, 
by a special commission appointed for that pur- ° 

pose. The successful candidates were then examined for 
the license by another commission, and in September they 
received the master's degree. Thus those that survived these 

1 F^LiBiEN, Histoire de la ville de Paris, V., p. 800. 

2 Statua Facultatis Artium, XLIL, op, cit. 
8 Ibid., XLI. 

4 Hid., XXXII., XLV. 
6 Ibid., LXVII. 



46 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ordeals were ready to begin teaching at the opening of the 
university in October. ^ According to this plan the interval be- 
tween the bachelor's and the master's degrees has been con- 
siderably shortened. The first of these is purely an academic 
degree based on scliolarship, the license implies the posses- 
sion of fitness to teach, and the master's degree is merely the 
formal admission of the candidate into the teaching body of 
the university. The possession of this higher degree from 
the University of Paris (or adoption by the masters of the 
university, which was recognized as the equivalent) was ab- 
solutely required of all teachers of grammar, rhetoric, or 
philosophy in the colleges of the university.^ In other 
words, the master's degree was the minimum qualification of 
the secondary teacher. 

The duty of inspecting all the colleges in the first month 
of his incumbency was again imposed upon 

Inspection. ^, , j o r sr 

the rector. 
These statutes have been described thus at length because 
in the first place they mark the beginning of the modern 
Importance university, and again because, save for various 
of this modifications introduced from time to time, es- 
Reform. penally in 1626 and in the last half of the 
eighteenth century, these three hundred and ten articles re- 
mained the statutes of the university until its suppression 
in 1793. 

The Jesuits were not the only religious body that was in- 
terested in the education of the youth. The seventeenth 
The Work f ^^ntury in France was marked by the rise of 
the Port- two Other organizations within the purview of 
Royalists. ^j^g Church, the Port-Koyalists and the Orato- 
rians, both of whom came into active competition with the 
older order. The first of these was crushed out (1660), 
while the Oratorians lived to see the suppression of the order 
of the Jesuits and even inherited many of their colleges when 
the latter were banished from France in 1764. Although 

1 Slatua Facultatis Artium, XLVIL, L., LIII. 
a Ihid., LVI. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 47 

the schools of the Port-Koyalists had such a transitory exist- 
ence (less than twenty years at the most), yet their spirit 
long survived the dissolution of their schools, and they left a 
lasting impression on French education. The study of the 
French language was with them a real subject of instruction, 
even though the French was often a translation of the Latin 
classics, but it is to their lasting credit that they tried to lay 
a good foundation in the vernacular before beginning the 
study of a foreign tongue. They preferred to learn the Latin 
through the French rather than the French through the 
Latin. Another radical departure from established custom 
was in the place they gave to the rational process. They 
substituted Descartes for the vestiges of scholasticism that 
still persisted in the colleges of the Jesuits, and sought not 
to form good Latinists but rather to send out young men of 
independent judgment. Nevertheless, as has been pointed 
out before, the Port-Koyal system was an ideal rather than a 
plan for general application. Aside from the principles of 
method noted above, its chief merit depended upon small 
groups of picked pupils (not more than five or six in a class), 
and the fact that they were all directed by teachers of supe- 
rior attainments, ideals which are impossible of realization in 
any public school system. 

Formed like the other religious orders primarily for the 
support of the Church, the Oratorians turned their efforts to the 
recruitment of the priesthood and assumed 
the responsibilities of a teaching body in order Oiatodaus 
the better to attain their primary end. After 
their formal registration by the Parliament of Paris in 1613, 
they spread with marvellous rapidity and all unconsciously 
soon became strong rivals of the Jesuits. By 1629 they 
already had some fifty establishments in various parts of 
France.^ Like the Port-Koyalists the Oratorians laid much 
stress on instruction in the vernacular, the first years of the 
instruction in grammar being entirely in French.^ Such 

1 Perraud, L'Oratoire de France au XVII'^ et an XIX^ sUcle, pp. 49, 54. 
" At Juilly a sixth class of grammar was established for this purpose, fol- 



48 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

was the vitality of the Latin, however, that its use was made 
obligatory from the fourth class up. The history (and at 
Juilly, their most important college, there was always a 
special master for that subject) included sacred history in 
the two lowest classes, Greek and Eoman in the next three, 
and French history in the three most advanced classes. 
This latter was looked upon as particularly vital, and the 
instruction from the lowest to the highest class was all in 
the native tongue.^ Geography was taught in connection 
with the history, while physics and mathematics (including 
algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, analyti- 
cal geometry, and the calculus) were the subjects of special 
instruction.^ The Oratorians and the Port-Eoyalists are 
equally to be credited with beginning the study of grammar 
in the vernacular, but for the emphasis placed upon history, 
mathematics, and physics, the Oratorians have to share the 
honors with none. In fact, in the course in French his- 
tory, as EoUand bears eloquent witness, the Oratorians were 
more than a century in advance of the colleges of the uni- 
versity. " The youths who frequent the college know the 
names of the consuls of Kome, and are often ignorant of those 
of our kings; they know the great deeds of Themistocles, 
of Alcibiades, . . . they know not those of Duguesclin, of 
Bayard . . . ; in a word the great men who have made 
our nation illustrious . . . have made no impression on 
them."^ Thus we find that the classics have ceased to 
monopolize the instruction of the colleges, and the courses 
are being framed more and more with the idea of turning 
out boys with an all-around equipment, with a liberal 
education. 

Of these three religious teaching bodies the Jesuits were 
by far the least progressive, for they continually harked back 

lowed some years later by a seventh, exclusively devoted to the study of 
French grammar, and to a few elementary notions of sacred history. Hamel, 
Histoire del'ahhaye ctdu college de Juilly, p. 215. 

1 Pekrauu, op. cit., pp. 220-221. 

2 Ibid., p. 222. 

3 Holland, Pla7i d'iducation, p. 105. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 49 

to the Constitutions of Loyola and the Batio studiorum of 
his successors. The Batio studiorum of 1599 was "found 
to be not only new, but complete, and good for 
centuries to come." ^ So " good " in fact, that Conservatism 
save for a few modifications, particularly in ^^^^ 
1832, and these not fundamental, it remains 
the Magna Charta of the order to-day, and the youth are still 
taught under the influence of the Jesuitic humanism of three 
hundred years ago. In the words of one of the generals of 
the nineteenth century in speaking of instruction in the 
lower studies : " The study of Latin and Greek letters must 
always remain intact and be the chief object of attention." ^ 
However that may be, the Jesuits of the seventeenth century 
far outdistanced both of their ecclesiastical rivals in the 
popular favor, and succeeded in crushing one of them abso- 
lutely. To the old College of Clermont were annexed 
successively various adjoining pieces of property as the 
student body increased, so that before the end of the century 
there were no fewer than five hundred resident pupils.^ The 
favor of the king, who was flattered by the Jesuits' crafty 
change of the old college name in his honor, attracted to its 
halls the scions of the nobility of the realm, and the College 
Louis-le-Grand under royal patronage became the most flour- 
ishing institution of Paris. Encouraged by their success 
here they multiplied their colleges throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. 

The Jesuits were not the source of all the troubles of the 
university during these years. The lower or grammar schools, 
which were as old as the university itself and rpj^g Grammar 
had remained under the jurisdiction of the Schools of 
Precentor of Notre Dame, had been gradually ^^^ Cathedral. 
pushing their work upward until grammar, according to the 
interpretation of their director, included all the classic 

1 Hughes, op. cit., p. 88. 

2 General Roothaan writing in 1832, quoted by Hughes, op. cit., p. 
292. 

8 YiUOND, Histoiredu college Louis-le-Grand, p. 137. 

4 



50 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

studies up to philosophy.^ He claimed the right to have 
this grammar taught by whom, how, and wherever, within 
the limits of Paris and its environs, he saw fit. These 
schools, in 1675, had rather more than five thousand pupils, 
and the university, feeling that they were encroaching dan- 
gerously and irresponsibly upon the rights of its colleges, 
prayed the king that they be confined within their ancient 
limits.2 Although Louis XIV. in a letter to parliament 
forbade the teachers of these schools to teach anything more 
than reading, writing, and the elements of the Latin lan- 
guage, and to receive any pupil more than nine years of age,^ 
the question was by no means settled. It dragged along 
until after the opening of the new century. Nevertheless it 
was these same grammar schools or " little schools " as they 
were called (not to be confounded with the "little schools" 
of the Port-Eoyalists), that continued to carry the brunt of 
preparatory work for entrance to the arts faculty of the 
university. 

In the face of all this competition from the lower schools 
and the religious bodies, together with the internal dissen- 
sions arising from the philosophical and theo- 
the Unfversftv logical questions that were coming to the fore, 
during the the university as a whole was far from pros- 
^Centur'f^ perous. The reforms of the early years of the 
century had done much, but much yet remained 
to be done. From the records of the rectoral inspection of 
1642, the discipline as a whole showed a commendable 
progress, but of the forty-three colleges in existence in 1600, 
there were only four or five that could compare favorably 
with the best institutions of the Jesuits.* They began more 
and more to imitate the methods of the latter, but found the 

^ JoLY, TraitU historique des dcoles ipiscopales ct eccUsiastiques, p. 304. 

^ Requeste au roy contrc les pctiies escJioles, in JouRDAiN, Histoire de V Uni- 
versitide Paris, Pikccs justificatives, p. 104. 

' JouRDAiN, op. cit., p. 240. 

* These were Harcourt, Beauvais, Grassins, Cardinal Lemoine, and Mon- 
taigii, without considering Navarre and Sorbonne. Jourdain, op. cit., p. 
145. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 51 

free tuition scheme of the churchmen a severe handicap. 
With the opening of the College Mazarin in 1661, from the 
bequest of Cardinal Mazarin, the university was in position 
to compete with the Jesuits on their own terms, for here 
there were no tuition fees. This college entered immedi- 
ately upon a career of prosperity that continued uninterrupt- 
edly until the Eevolution, never having fewer than six hundred 
students, and in prosperous years even running as high as 
twelve hundred.^ 

Shortly before the passage from the seventeenth to the 
eighteenth century, thanks to the wise administration of 
EoUin, there was a decided improvement both ^^n^^ ^^^^ ^j^g 
in the discipline and in the academic work of Trait6 des 
the university. Eector from 1694 to 1696, he ^^''^''• 
conscientiously made the rounds of all the colleges, and with 
a kind but firm hand sought to modify their discipline and 
instruction in accordance with the principles enunciated later 
m his Traits des etudes. Although strangely overestimated 
by Villemain, who said in the second quarter of the last cen- 
tury that since the publication of this work there had been 
no progress,^ nevertheless from the point of view of actual 
practice it was undoubtedly the most important pedagogical 
treatise of his age. Classicist though he was and faithful to . 
classical traditions, he wrote this work in French in order 
to appeal to a larger circle than he could have reached 
through the Latin. This compromise is all the more note- 
worthy when one considers that his first work ia the vernac- 
ular was begun when he was more than sixty years 
of age. It shows the slow but steady progress of the 
native language in displacing the Latin in the world of 
letters. 

In the Traite des etudes, the aims of university instruction 
(that is, secondary instruction within the author's meaning) 
are conceived to be : (1) the cultivation of the mind ; (2) the 

^ JOXJRDAIN, op. cit., p. 264. 

2 Villemain, Tableau de la UtUrature frangaise au XVIII^ siecle, I., 
p. 226. 



52 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

development of the moral character ; and (3) the formation 
of the Christian man.^ He follows the Oratorians and the 
Port-Eoyalists in the importance of the French language 
for the beginning pupils, but he shows his partiality for the 
classics in the elaborate treatment of instruction in Greek 
and Latin. Nevertheless there is no attempt, as in the cur- 
riculum of the Jesuits, to teach the Latin as a living lan- 
guage, but it is considered as a means of laying under tribute 
the vast treasures of the classic world. Not merely to form 
good Latinists, but rather to develop young men of fine ap- 
preciation and good taste, who know the right and will do 
the right, this is the goal he sets out to reach.^ His program 
in history is worked out nearly as minutely, but, strange to 
say, it is limited to sacred and ancient history. In his intro- 
ductory note he makes this astounding statement : " I do not 
believe it possible to find time during the course to devote to 
the history of France. ... I confess that I have not applied 
myself sufficiently to it ; and I am ashamed to be in a way 
a stranger in my own country after having journeyed over 
so many others." ^ He suggests, however, that the students 
should be encouraged to read the history of their own coun- 
try in their leisure hours. How far behind the conceptions 
of the Oratorians and the Port-Eoyalists ! 

As he himself modestly observes, save for some few ex- 
pressions of his own particular views, notably in the instruc- 
tion in French and history, he has no intention of wiiting " a 
new plan of studies, nor of proposing new rules or a new 
method of instructing the youth, but he merely intends to 
note what already prevails in the University of Paris."* 
But one ought to add that from beginning to end it is all 
tempered by his individual interpretation, and it breathes 
throughout the kindly and gentle spirit of its author. At 

1 KoLLiN, De la mani^re d'enseigner et (Titudier les belles Icttrcs (com* 
monh' known as Traite des etudes), Discours priliminaire, p. i. 

2 "ibid., pp. xcviii.-xcix., cm. 

8 Ibid., III., p. 11. 
4 Ihid., I., p. civ. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 53 

least for the next half century it stood as the ideal which 
the colleges of the university sought to attain. 

A few years before, in 1719, the young king, Louis XV., 
through the Duke of Orleans, had ordered that in return for a 
diversion of some State funds to the exchequer 
of the university, instruction should be gra- instruction, 

tuitoUS in all its full course colleges.^ At that and Professors' 

time the salaries of professors of philosophy 
and rhetoric were fixed at 1000 livres, 800 livres for those 
of the second and third classes, and 600 livres for those of 
the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes.^ This action of the regent 
was received with great popular approval. It indicated a 
more widespread application of the innovation begun at the 
College Mazarin more than thirty years before, and it put the 
ten colleges to which it applied in position to compete suc- 
cessfully with the Jesuits for the popular favor. Neverthe- 
less the standard set by a decadent royalty was swept 
away with that power itself, and to-day the gratuity of 
secondary instruction yet stands as an ideal for France to 
attain. 

In 1762 appeared the JSmile, that suggestive but extremely 
fantastic and Utopian scheme of education. Any analysis 
of its contents is foreign to the scope of this rp^^ 

study, for its importance lies not in any im- Educational 
mediate effect on the educational practice of devolution, 
the time, but in the influence it exercised on subsequent 
educational thought. In this latter respect it was an epoch- 
making treatise that has exacted tribute from all the great 
educational writers since that day. The publication of the 
J^mile together with the sweeping away of the staunchest 
supporters of the old educational doctrines in the expulsion 
of the Jesuits, which occurred that same year, seems to 

1 Lettres patentes de Louis XV., April 14, 1719, in Joxjkdain, op. cit., 
Pieces justificatives, pp. 167-168. 

"^ Equivalent to-day to from $200 to $125. Not a very large income to be 
sure, but it must be remembered that these men were all celibates, that they 
had also their living at their college, besides extra fees of various sorts. The 
greater value of money in those days must also be kept in mind. 



54 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

suggest that the educational revolution preceded the political 
revolution, and that the former dates really from 1762, when 
the old teaching force of the colleges disappeared from the 
scene.i 

The fall of the Jesuits had come about somewhat sud- 
denly. Although the gratuity of instruction in the full- 
course colleges had enabled the university to 

The Fall of compete with the Jesuits on more than even 

the Jesuits. ^ 

terms, yet the College of Louis-le-Grand had 
easily held its own, due in no small degree to the fact that 
the education there often bordered on the spectacular. The 
college and the order seemed to be prospering more than 
ever when suddenly the crash came. The attempted assassi- 
nation of Louis XV. by a former domestic of the college, the 
expulsion of the society from Portugal, on account of com- 
plicity in a plot against the life of the king, the bankruptcy 
of one of their order who had been engaged in the West 
India trade, all came in rapid succession. This last was 
really the most serious blow to the order in France, for it 
resulted in a general investigation conducted by the Parlia- 
ment of Paris as well as by the parliaments throughout the 
kingdom. At this time it seemed as though the stored-up 
hatred of years burst forth. The political question was 
undoubtedly uppermost, but evidence is not wanting to show 
that there was wide-spread dissatisfaction with the Jesuit 
methods and subjects of instruction,^ and that their moral 
conscientiousness was not above reproach.^ Be that as it 
may, in August, 1762, the Jesuits were ejected from all their 
colleges, and their property was sold to satisfy their credi- 
tors. The following year the order was formally abolished 
by the Papal See, and in 1764 it was suppressed throughout 
the realm of Prance. By this first act the Jesuits lost no 

1 CoMPAYR^, Histoirc critique des doctrines de I' Education en France, II., 
p. 5. 

2 Cf. EoLTiAND, Recueil de phisieurs des ouvrages du president Eolland, 
1782, pp. 394, 543, 565, 579-580, 717. 

8 Ibid., pp. 395, 452, 542, 730. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 55 

fewer than forty colleges within the jurisdiction of the 
Parliament of Paris alone, and in the rest of France their 
colleges fell into the hands of the provincial universities 
or were directed by the Oratorians or other teaching bodies. 
In spite of the efforts of the creditors to have the Paris 
property sold, the parliament declared that the College 
Louis-le-Grand must never be used for anything but educa- 
tional purposes. The university transferred its official seat 
to the home of its former rivals, all the colleges of Paris 
that were not " full course " (twenty-eight in number) were 
formally amalgamated with Louis-le-Grand,^ providing one 
hundred and eighty-five effective scholarships, which number 
was subsequently increased to six hundred, and for the first 
time in two hundred years the university was left in undis- 
puted control of secondary and superior education in Paris. 
Thus the secondary education was concentrated in the ten 
full-course colleges that still survived. 

The expulsion of the Jesuits created a great gap in the 
ranks of the teaching force throughout the country. It 
required only a stroke of the pen to declare j, ,, ,, 
these thousands of positions vacant, but how Educational 
different a matter to fill them again ! In its ^^^°' ^ ''^^• 
dilemma the Parliament of Paris appealed to the other par- 
liaments and to the universities for help in drawing up some 
general plan of education. The result of this request is 
embodied in the educational plan of Eolland d'Erceville, 
which was presented in a report to parliament in 1768. In 
many respects this merely reiterated the doctrines of Eollin 
and the Port-Eoyalists, but it suggested others which, if not 
original, were yet innovations in the educational conceptions 
of the university. Holland's ideas of the importance of 
history are even more radical than those of Eollin. Like 
the latter he insists that history be taught in every class 
from the lowest through the rhetoric,^ but he wants it 

1 JouRDAiN, op. cit., PUces justificatives, pp. 215-220. 

2 At this time the classes were respectively, the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, 
second or humanities, rhetoric, and two years of philosophy. 



56 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

divorced from the course in grammar and intrusted to the 
hands of special teachers, and furthermore he would empha- 
size modern and national history. ^ Not only is a more 
regular and extensive study of French to be undertaken, but 
more important still, French is to be added to Latin and 
Greek as a source from which to draw illustrations for 
the principles of rhetoric.^ PtoUand, however, did not 
quite dare to sanction the radical measure of the Minister 
of Dijon who ordered that the French rejjlace the Latin 
and Greek for this purpose. One of the most attrac- 
tive points about a comparative study of programs is to 
trace the gradual conquest of the vernacular over the 
classic tongues. EoUand further urges the appointment 
of special professors of mathematics and experimental 
physics, justifying his recommendations by the success of 
similar innovations at the Colleges of Mazarin and Navarre 
respectively.^ 

It is in the matter of organization of instruction that Hol- 
land's suggestions were the most valuable, for Napoleon in- 
corporated some of them bodily into his plan for an imperial 
university forty years later, especially that relating to the 
centralization of educational control. This led to a seques- 
tration of the three orders of education, and for fear that the 
system might become top heavy, Eolland advocated a reduc- 
tion in the number of full-course colleges, replacing some of 
them by pedagogies or part-course colleges where the instruc- 
tion would be limited to religion, ethics, French grammar, 
the elements of Latin and of histor}^* In this suggestion of 
less lavish opportunities for secondary instruction, Eolland 
was merely restating the idea that Eichelieu had brought 
forward long before and that reappeared nearly a century 
later in Bismarck's fear of an " educated proletariat." " One 
should never lose sight of the principle," said Eolland, 

1 Eolland, op. cit., pp. 118-123. 

2 Ibid., p. 112. 

8 JbicL, pp. 139, 144, 
* Ibid., p. 30. 



THE RENAISSANCE TO THE REVOLUTION 57 

"that each one ought to have within his reach the edu- 
cation for which he is best fitted." ^ By this he meant 
the universal opportunity for education, provided the in- 
dividual was fitted to receive it, but he never seems 
to have reached the grander and more vitally fundamen- 
tal ideas for the State, of gratuitous and compulsory 
education. 

One of the most serious handicaps in the way of realizing 
this universality of opportunity was the lack of competent 
teachers, a situation that had been incalculably aggravated 
by the recent measures against the Jesuits. In order to 
overcome this difficulty, Eolland, in accordance with the sug- 
gestion of one Abbd Pdlissier that had appeared shortly 
before, proposed to establish a training school for teachers in 
each university centre.^ The details of the plan thus 
brought forward were strikingly similar to the great scheme 
of the Convention that had such an ephemeral existence a 
few years later, but which was the first practical attempt to 
put the training school idea into existence in France. One 
of the primary aims to be served by such a school was to 
bring the standard of the provincial teachers up to that in 
Paris, so " that all the French should share alike in the 
treasures of the sciences that are accumulating from day to 
day — in a word, that the time would come when one could 
no longer distinguish a young man brought up in the prov- 
inces from one who had been educated in the capital." ^ 
Thus we see that the plan of Eolland was no chimerical 
scheme like Eousseau's iSmile, but bristled with sound 
sense and practical ideas. The time was not then ripe, 
however, for accomplishing these reforms. It needed the 
drastic purgation of the Eevolutionary period, followed 
by the constructive genius of Napoleon, to put them into 
effect. 

The end of the university was not far off. Almost exactly 

1 Holland, op. cit,, p. 25. 

2 Ibid., p. 59. 
8 jhid,^ p. 22. 



58 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

a quarter of a century later the decree of the Convention of 
September, 1793, abolished the old order of things educa- 
tional, and the full-course colleges went down to ruin with 
the ancient University of Paris that had all but finished its 
sixth century of usefulness. 



CHAPTEE IV 

THE REVOLUTION AND THE PROGRESS OF 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

" The laws of education vary as the government." ^ 

This fundamental truth gives us the key-note to the charac- 
teristics of educational legislation during the Eevolutionary 
period in French history. All was confusion 
in political life ; all was chaos in educational ^^^ RevoTution. 
affairs. The bill passed to-day was likely to 
be repealed to-morrow, or perhaps the government that 
voted the new law would cease to exist before the changes 
contained therein could become operative. Nevertheless, 
in spite of all the transitoriness of the acts of the governing 
bodies, certain great principles were enunciated then that 
have since been elaborated in a more practical form and 
have been incorporated in the educational creed of the 
nation. The astonishing fact is not that the national as- 
semblies from 1789 to the beginning of the Consulate did 
not leave their educational projects in a more finished state, 
but rather that they found time during that period of kalei- 
doscopic changes to consider educational questions at all. 
Yet of all the committees of the Convention, the Committee 
of Public Instruction was second in activity only to the 
Committee of Public Safety, and that, too, during 1793, the 
"terrible year," Whatever efforts had thus far been made 
to popularize education, particularly secondary and superior, 
and give it universal application, certainly had not been 
successful. The education in the colleges under the old 
regime had unquestionably been for the few. Save for some 

1 Montesquieu, De I'esprit des Ms, bk. IV. 



GO FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

sporadic efforts, it had all been restricted to the domain of 
letters, and had ministered very little to the practical needs 
of society. Indeed, aside from the time when Latin was 
essential for church purposes or necessary in the diplomatic 
service, what utilitarian value had there been in the classic 
learning which formed the body of instruction in the college 
courses ? The impulses, and that is equivalent to saying the 
acts, of the Eevolutionary assemblies were mainly in protest 
against everything that had been. The university and its 
colleges had been; therefore they must go. This destruc- 
tion, however, was only preliminary to the reconstruction 
tha* should rehabilitate them on a grander, more exten- 
sive, more national, more socially useful scale than before. 
Through the developments in the history of French second- 
ary instruction that we have cursorily sketched up to this 
period, the ordinary man had scarcely been considered in 
the educational scheme; yet ever since the Battle of Bou- 
vines sounded the death knell of the knight of the Middle 
Ages, this "common man" had been coming nearer and 
nearer to the front of the stage. Instead of the supernu- 
merary to be ordered about at will, he had been steadily grow- 
ing in importance until at the time of the French Eevolution 
he played the leading part. " How have ye treated us ? " 
says Carlyle. " How have ye taught us, fed us, and led us, 
while we toiled for you ? The answer can be read in flames 
over a nightly summer sky." ^ A more pregnant answer still 
may be read in the declaration of the Bights of Man, and in 
the applications of these principles in the subsequent de- 
crees of the Constitutional Assembly. This, in turn, was 
shortly followed by the Constitution of 1791 which guaran- 
teed the creation of universal public instruction, gratuitous 
in its lower stages.^ 

Instead of the religious ideal, the notion of personal safety 
in the sight of the Almighty, that had formed the basis of 
the educational efforts of the Middle Ages, and that had 

1 Carlyle, French revolution, bk. VI., ch. 3. 
3 Constitution of 1791, title I. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 61 

persisted throughout the period of the Eenaissance and the 
Eeformation, it is now the destiny of the political world, 
the safety of the State, that underlies the educational 
schemes. Lepelletier and the still more fiery radical, Dan- 
ton, voiced this conception in declaring that the child be- 
longed to the Eepublic before belonging to his parents, and 
consequently he should be taken away from the home sur- 
roundings and educated by, at the expense of, and for the 
State.^ This was admittedly nothing less than the revival 
of the educational system of Sparta. It was not so much 
what these iconoclasts actually effected in the direction of 
educational reform, as what they dreamed of doing that ex- 
cites our interest and our admiration to-day, for the princi- 
ples that have survived are far more important than the 
institutions. 

The great projects of Talleyrand and Condorcet, the 
scheme of the Constitutional and the Legislative Assem- 
blies respectively, compassed the whole gamut 
of educational activity from the modest vil- pians Contrasted 
lage school to the Institute at the capital, but ^itii those of the 

^1 ,. . ^ • p 1 Convention. 

the times were not yet ripe tor any such am- 
bitious organization of public instruction. With the advent 
of the Convention the extreme radicals soon gained the 
control, and these earlier comprehensive plans were re- 
placed by those of a distinctly smaller calibre whose em- 
phasis was chiefly devoted to the field of primary education.^ 
Not only were these projects more limited in their scope, 
but they marked the far reach from the liberalism of the 
days of 1789 to the Jacobinism of 1793, which latter was 
nothing less than the despotism of an irresponsible clique 
replacing the tyranny of a monarch. Thus for a time we 
find that supposititious notion of equality pushed to an 
absurd extreme. It was only in the last year of the Con- 
vention that the educational plans showed evidences of 
former liberal ideas, and higher education received some 

1 Plan dc Michel Lepelletier, in Hippeau, Instruction publique en France 
pendant la Revolution, Discours et Rapports, pp. 349, 385. 



62 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

attention. The founding of the Polytechnic School, the 
School of Mars, the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, and 
the Normal School, followed the next year by the organ- 
ization of the Bureau of Longitude, the National Institute 
of Music, and the Central Schools, all came in rapid suc- 
cession within a period of less than a year. In those days 
no project appeared too difficult, no conception too grand. To 
have the idea was equivalent to launching the undertaking. 

One of the most important of these ephemeral creations 
of the Convention was the establishment of the Normal 

School. This was the first legal recognition 
Normale ^ France of the distinction between mere 

academic training and teaching ability. Fur- 
thermore, it presaged the secondary normal school of a few 
years later and laid the foundation for a course of training 
whose utility scores of men conspicuous in the educational 
world in America to-day scoff at most acrimoniously. 
EoUand had already promulgated the same ideas some 
twenty years previous, drawing them admittedly from a series 
of pamphlets issued by one Abbd Pdlissier. The plan as 
presented to the Convention by Lakanal provided for the 
establishment at Paris of a great central normal school 
which should furnish the teaching force of the departmental 
normal schools subsequently to be established.^ After a 
very brief existence of less than four months (January 
20 to May 15, 1795), this school passed out of exist- 
ence, and there is no evidence that there was any attempt 
made to establish the departmental normal schools as 
originally contemplated. The work of this Paris school 
only emphasizes the cardinal principle that prompted its 
foundation. The mere recital of the names of the profes- 
sors of this ill-starred effort (among whom were Lagrange, 
Laplace, Monge, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Daubenton, and 
Berthollet) is a sufficient guarantee of the intellectual quali- 
fications of the teaching staff, but from the point of view 

1 D6cret de la Convention naiioyialc, 30 Oct., 1794, Rccucil, I., sec. 2, 
pp. 26-28. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 63 

of a training school the undertaking was a conspicuous 
failure; in the first place because these scholars failed to 
grasp the purpose for which the school was established, 
and in the second place because the work they gave was 
not adapted to the intellectual attainments of their students. 
Laplace, speaking for himself and Lagrange, in his opening 
remarks said that they expected to present a "general 
sketch of all the discoveries made in mathematics." In 
accordance with this aim he began with arithmetic, and at 
his fourteenth and last lecture had reached the discussion of 
the theory of probabilities.^ Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who 
was somewhat surprised at being invited to give a series of 
lectures before these students, announced to them at the 
first meeting of his com-se that he would yet require about 
three months to complete the elaboration of his new treat- 
ment of ethics from a scientific point of view ^ and that he 
would consequently be compelled to postpone the com- 
mencement of his lectures until later in the session. The 
end of the school came before his work was completed. 
BerthoUet confined himself to the recent discoveries in 
the field of chemistry. Be that as it may, although this 
first great normal school was far from a success, nevertheless 
the experiment was not in vain, for Napoleon was keen 
enough to appreciate the advantages of such a school, and 
the plan was revived in the new university. This next 
school went far beyond the experimental stage, and to-day 
it still stands, the justifiable pride of the secondary school 
system. 

Each of the three Eevolutionary Assemblies had its own 
grand scheme of popular education, championed respect- 
ively by Talleyrand, Condorcet, and Daunou, rp^^^ central 
but all except the last never got beyond the Schools of the 
paper stage. They were never put into actual Convention. 
execution. The comprehensive system proposed by Daunou 

1 Stances den icoles normales recueillies par des sUnographes et revues par les 
professeurs, I., p. 21 ; VI., p. 32. 
2 Ibid.,I.,]).lU. 



64 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

included the establishment of the well-known ecoles centrales, 
or central schools, all over France. This was a practical 
triumph of the plans of Talleyrand and Condorcet, and was 
a tacit admission that the country must provide for something 
above the elementary instruction emphasized by Lepelletier 
and his fellow members during the early days of the Con- 
vention. In the spring of 1795 the Convention had voted 
to establish the central schools in accordance with the report 
presented by Lakanal/ but the plan was too loosely drawn 
to be carried out. It provided for one school for every 
thirty thousand population, and each faculty was com- 
posed of fourteen chairs representing no fewer than twenty 
different arts and sciences. Lakanal's bill was merely a 
kind of encyclopaedic enumeration of subjects of instruc- 
tion, with no specific program to be followed, nor even 
any division into classes. It remairied for Daunou to bring 
order out of this chaos, and the program of these central 
schools that formed a part of the organic law of the fol- 
lowiug October^ remained substantially unchanged through- 
out the eight years that they existed. The instruction 
was divided into three groups : the first, for pupils from 
twelve to fourteen years of age, included drawing, natural 
history, ancient languages, and, at the option of the legisla- 
tive body, modern languages ; the second, for pupils from 
fourteen to sixteen years of age, covered elementary mathe- 
matics, physics and chemistry ; the third, for pupils of 
sixteen years of age and over, embraced general grammar, 
literature, history, and legislation. It requnes but a glance 
to see the enormous difference between the secondary 
schools of the Eevolution and the colleges of the ancient 
regime. Truly the fall of the classics had been great. 
These central schools were thus real secondary schools 
in our sense of the word in America, for they received 
pupils directly from the primary schools that were estab- 
lished under the provisions of the same law, and prepared 

1 mcrct, Feb. 25, 1795, chap. 1, Eccucil, I., sec. 2, pp. 37-38. 

2 Loi, Oct. 25, 1795, Title II., Eccueil, I., sec. 2, pp. 46-49. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 65 

their pupils for the special schools such as those of astron- 
omy, natural history, and medicine which were to be 
established later. This law of the Convention made no 
attempt to enforce the school attendance, but a subsequent 
order of the Directory ^ shows a curious effort to encourage 
attendance at the central schools. This provided that every 
non-married seeker for government appointment that was 
not in the army should present a certificate showing that he 
had been enrolled in such a school, while in the case of a 
married man with children of school age, the proof that 
the latter had attended the government schools would be 
sufficient for this purpose. Applicants who were unable to 
comply with the above-mentioned provision were required to 
present satisfactory evidence of the validity of their claims 
for exemption from these requirements. 

At all events, the end of the year 1796 saw two of these 
central schools under way in Paris (a third one was subse- 
quently added), and one in each of the provincial depart- 
ments. In distinction from the former practice, they had no 
boarding pupils. There was also an annual tuition charge 
not to exceed twenty-five livres (about five dollars), which could 
be remitted in the case of one quarter of the pupils, pro- 
vided their financial condition justified their demand for this 
exemption. These central schools, although they have been 
severely scored by many critics, nevertheless form an impor- 
tant link in the secondary school system of France, for they 
bridge over the gap between the old regime, and Napoleon's 
organization of new lyc^es and the establishment of the 
modern secondary school system. True, their organization 
was incomplete, but nevertheless they expressed in a tangible 
form the protest of the Eevolutionary ideas against the clas- 
sical training of the monarchy ; a kind of "-human " education 
as opposed to the humanistic education of the old colleges. 
Besides, too, this was a transitional period of momentous con- 
sequences, and any such ephemeral educational experiment 
is bound to suffer when compared with a system backed by 

1 Jrret4, Nov. 17, 1797, Jtecueil, I., sec. 2, pp. 87-88. 
5 



66 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

centuries of tradition. In spite of this, in some instances, 
notably at Besangon where the central school had five hun- 
dred pupils on its roll whereas the former college in its most 
flourishing days had had barely three hundred, ^ the new 
schools more than held their own with the old. Further- 
more, the criticisms have all been made ex cathedra, for these 
schools lasted too short a time to allow one to judge of their 
real worth from the character of the students they sent forth. 
M. Picavet in a painstaking and impartial study of these 
schools which contains much hitherto unpublished material, ^ 
brings out the interesting fact that the leading professors of 
the imperial lyc^es had almost all been teachers in the cen- 
tral schools. This fact alone would seem to indicate that 
these institutions could not have been so much of a failure 
as some of the imperial and royalist critics would have one 
believe, for after all the teacher is more important than the 
curriculum. 

The law of May 1, 1802, completely reorganizing the 
scheme of public instruction, substituted thirty lyc(^es for 
the central schools that were then in existence, 
the^Modern ^^^l thus laid the foundation of the modern 
Secondary system of secondary instruction that we find 
gyg^°^j,_ in France to-day. This same law defines very 
clearly the exact significance of the term "sec- 
ondary school." "Every school established by the com- 
munes or conducted by private individuals wherein are 
taught French, Latin, the first principles of geography, of 
history, and of mathematics, will be considered as a second- 
ary school." This, then, gives us the origin of the commu- 
nal college. The lycdes and the special schools supported 
from the State treasury formed a class of institutions some- 
what higher than these secondary schools, and to-day the 
lyc^es still retain their superiority to the colleges in public 

1 Lacroix, Essais sur V ctiseignement en general, ct sur celui des viatMvia- 
tiques en par ticulier, Yi. 129, n. 

2 Picavet, Les idiol ogucs, essai sur I'histoire dcsidies, etdcs tMories scienti- 
fiques, philosophiqucs, rcligicuscs, etc., en France depuis 1789, pp. 37-66. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 67 

esteem, in the remuneration and position of the instructors, 
and in the character of their work. According to the terms 
of that law, the lyc^es were essentially devoted to instruc- 
tion in Latin and mathematics. While this new law was 
generally acceptable to Napoleon as consul, it was not at all 
satisfactory from the imperial point of view. Carried away 
with his zeal for organization and possessed with the idea of 
centralizing even the educational administration of the nation 
in his own hands, he established the University of 1808, and 
reorganized the secondary school system in accordance with 
this new plan. 

The opening sections of the organic decree of 1808 
leave no uncertainty in the mind of the reader as to the 
centralizing notion embodied there. " Public Extreme 
instruction throughout the empire is confined Centraliza- 
exclusively to the university." ^ As we read ^^^^' 
on, we find that no school might be opened without the sanc- 
tion of the grand master, nor might anybody open a school 
or even teach in a school who was not a graduate of the uni- 
versity. The educational hierarchy was thus very carefully 
built up. When one recalls further that the grand master 
was practically an absolute monarch in the educational 
world, and that he could be appointed and removed at will 
by the emperor, the extent of the centralization in this new 
plan is at once apparent. And these absolute powers ex- 
tended from the appointment of the general inspectors down 
to appointment of the scholarship holders in a lyc^e, or 
granting permission to open a primary school. This organiza- 
tion, which was practically that of a civilian army under full 
military discipline, reproduced almost exactly the idea put 
forth by EoUand about forty years before, that all degrees of 
public instruction should be subordinated to a single gov- 
ernment authority. This same general plan still exists in 
France, but the schools to-day are considerably removed from 
the stultifying uniformity which prevailed throughout the 
major part of the nineteenth century. 

1 Bicret, Mar. 17, 1808, Title 1, par. 1, Recueil, IV,, p. 1. 



68 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

From the point of view of the curriculum these new 
lyc^es reproduced even more closely the pre-Eevolutionary 
conditions than did the first lyc^e of 1802. 
Curriculum. They had a six-year course, subsequently 
extended to seven,^ with Latin and French 
running parallel throughout the first five, and Greek in the 
second, third, and fourth years. In the last year, the in- 
struction in philosophy might be given optionally in either 
Latin or French. History, with the merest modicum of 
geography, chronology, and mythology, is again in evidence. 
The scientific tendency, which had been very prominent 
throughout the deliberations of the Eevolutionary bodies, is 
beginning decidedly to lose caste, for instead of the six years 
devoted to mathematics and science in the first lyc^e pro- 
gram of 1802, we now find that the scientific subjects oc- 
cupy only one whole year and parts of three others. Five 
years later, these same scientific branches have entirely lost 
their independence and have had their identity submerged 
in the traditional classical program. 

Evidently the transition from the old regime had been too 
rapid. It requires a long period to change the ideals of a 
Eeestablish- iiation, and the change brought about by the 
ment of the Eevolutionary government had come all too 
Old Regime, ^^^^^i^^ i^ ^^^ g^st exuberance of their 

victory the new leaders had reacted widely against the old 
conditions, and through the political numbness akin to that 
that follows a sudden severe shock to the nervous system, this 
change had prevailed. But now the old blood began cours- 
ing through the veins again. The old life reasserted itself. 
The old institutions reestablished themselves, as much as 
the changed outward conditions would allow. Some years 
previous to this time, upon coming away from Notre Dame 
on the Easter Sunday when the Concordat was published, 
Napoleon is said to have remarked to some of his generals : 

1 With the addition of the eighth and seventh classes preparatory to 
"granniiar" in 1810, the course was practicall}^ lengthened to eight full years 
before beginning the work specifically denominated philosophy. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 69 

" Is it not true that to-day the old order seems to be 
revived ? " " Yes," replied one of them, " except for the two 
millions of French people who died for liberty and who 
cannot be revived." So we find a wide-spread clamor for 
a return to the study of the ancient languages. That 
dominance of the sciences had been merely transitory. 
But it was the foreshadowing of subsequent tendencies, 
whose substantial realization has only recently been con- 
summated in France in the changes in the secondary 
school program that have but lately been completed. In 
the same manner, the Eevolutionary government foreshad- 
owed the separation of Church and State that has just 
been effected, an event that Napoleon by that very Con- 
cordat succeeded in delaying for almost exactly one hundred 
years. 

In restoring the old order of things. Napoleon stamped the 
impress of his own character on the discipline of the schools. 
It was essentially military throughout. The 
pupils were divided into companies of twenty- j^scipline 
five, and over each were placed a sergeant and 
four corporals ; the signal for all the exercises was given by 
drum tap ; and the internes were forbidden to appear outside 
the walls of the lycde except in full uniform. As a matter 
of fact, they were not allowed to lay aside any part of their 
clothing, even during the recreation period, without the 
permission of the sub-master. 

The subjoined figures^ will give some indication of the 
extent of the devastation in the field of secondary education 
worked by the Revolution and the succeeding 
years of uncertainty. Under the Empire these ^^^oj^^^ion 
schools seemed in a fair way to recover their on Secondary- 
former prestige when suddenly the fall of ^ttp^Xnce 
Napoleon dealt them such a blow that the 
lyc^es did not recover until just before the Revolution of 
1830, and the communal colleges for more than a dozen 
years later than that. 

* ViLLEMAiN, Rapport au roi, 1844, pp. 77, 84, 95. 



70 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



COMPARATIVE NUMBERS OF SECONDARY 
PUPILS 1789-1842 





1789 


1809 


1813 


1842 


Number of pupils in the colleges . . 

Number of pupils in lycees or royal 
colleges 

Niunber of pupils in communal col- 
leges 


72747 


9068 
18507 


14492 
29559 


18697 
26584 








Total number of pupils in lycees and 
colleges 




27575 


44051 


45281 



It is only fair to add that if the number of pupils in 
private and boarding schools were included, the total number 
of those receiving secondary instruction in 1842 ^ would 
have approximately equalled that in 1789. 

Although Louis XVIII. allowed the university to continue, 

the years of the Eestoration can hardly be looked upon as 

Retrogression °^^®^ ^^^^ ^ period of retrogression. The 

under the lyc^es took the name of royal colleges, which 

Restoration. ^^^^ retained until the Eevolution of 1848. 
The influence of the ecclesiastical power became more and 
more prominent. By an order of 1802 each lyc^e was re- 
quired to have its own chaplain. In 1809 the priest was 
ranked with the professors of the first class, while in the 
Statute of 1821, he was put on equal footing, both as regards 
position and salary, with the censeur or sub-master. The 
bases of education in the colleges were specifically stated to 
be " religion, the monarchy, the legitimacy, and the constitu- 
tion," and the bishop was given the right of supervision 
over religious instruction in all the colleges of his diocese. 
For the first time, the official regulations made a specific 

1 KiLlAN, Tableau de Vinstruction secondaire en France, p. 325, gives thia 
latter figure for private and boarding schools iu 1840 as 30,482. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 71 

iassigument to religious instruction, and the Scriptural 
reading in the preparatory classes was to be in French, in 
the sixth to the third inclusive, in Latin, and in the higher 
classes in Greek. Although the course in philosophy was 
lengthened to two years (and had to be conducted in Latin), 
later in the same year, 1821, the completion of only the first 
year's work was required for admission to the candidacy of 
the baccalaureate in letters, and the second year of the phi- 
losophy course was given over to mathematics and science. 

The retrogression during the early years of the Eestoration 
period was followed by a reaction toward its close, and in one 
respect, at least, it marked a great step in ad- 
vance. This latter was the creation in 1828 of ^^gacC* 
the office of the Minister of Public Instruction 
whose incumbent was also Grand Master of the University. 
While educational affairs have not progressed uninterruptedly 
since that date, nevertheless this innovation recognized the 
fact that the educational interests of the nation were worthy 
to be ranked with the other great departments of the public 
service. Furthermore, the instruction in sciences was brought 
up to that in letters; the standard of qualifications of the 
teaching body was raised; modern languages, which since 
1814 had been optional subjects on a par with dancing, fenc- 
ing, and music, and paid for by the parents as extras, were 
made a part of the regular instruction in the royal colleges ; 
the course in history was lengthened to five years after the 
preparatory classes ; and the philosophy was once more taught 
in French. 

The July Monarchy, which came into power under Louis 
Philippe in 1830 and was the outcome of a more liberalizing 
tendency in the political world, early applied rpj^^ -^t-q^j, ^f 
itself to the development of public instruction, the July 
but the great expansion that took place here Monarchy. 
was almost exclusively confined to the field of primary edu- 
cation. The elementary school law of 1833 marked M. 
Guizot's effort to establish the system of higher primary 
schools. Throughout the period, however, there was a con- 



72 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

stant struggle between the university and the Catholic party 
wherein the latter sought to establish the parity between its 
own ecclesiastical schools and the royal and communal col- 
leges. Indeed, the strife was strongly suggestive of that be- 
tween those same two antagonists in the days of the old 
Jesuit college of Clermont-Louis-le-Grand, and under the 
reaction of 1850 the university was worsted much as she had 
l^een in her earlier contests. 

The ministry of M. Villemain (1840-1844) is noteworthy 
for the publication of the first report on secondary instruction 

,^.„ . , in France. Napoleon had ordered such a re- 

Villemain s -u £ -< , i- ■ t 

Report on Sec- port many years before, but for some mexpii- 
ondary Educa- cable reason his directions had not been carried 
' ' out, and under the Eestoration there was prob- 
ably no eagerness to bring out comparisons that could hardly 
have reflected credit upon the government then in power. 
Under Louis Philippe, in 1831, the task had been under- 
taken for primary education, and now some twelve years 
later under the same general auspices it was completed for 
secondary education. The figures already quoted ^ show that 
in point of attendance the secondary schools have barely re- 
covered the ground they lost at the time of the Eevolution. 
Although few of the advanced ideas of the most progressive 
leaders of the Convention are still to be found, yet the cur- 
riculum is far ahead of that under the old ante-Revolutionary 
order. But according to the notions of M. Villemain, sec- 
ondary instruction could never have more than a limited 
extension. " Distinct from elementary instruction, even on 
those very points wherein the two seem to resemble each 
other, and furthermore having a direction and an extent en- 
tirely dift'erent, secondary instruction includes the study of 
ancient languages, of literature, of mathematical and physical 
sciences, which ought to prepare for the learned professions, 
for great intellectual accomplishments, and for the principal 
occupations of society. It is intended particularly for those 
whom the sacrifices of their families or the liberality of State 

1 Cf. supra, p. 70. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 73 

or community put in position to devote themselves to study 
not only throughout their childhood, but during those years 
of youth which in other walks of life are devoted to remu- 
nerative labor." 1 " Fundamentally it is the ancient sys- 
tem of Port-Eoyal and of the University of Paris, the system 
which for two centuries has produced so many able and en- 
lightened men for the bench and for the business world. .... 
Besides that dominant study of the ancient languages, par- 
ticularly useful for exercising and ripening the mind, the 
instruction in history has been strengthened, and variously 
graded classes in mathematics have been maintained, some 
preparatory, some advanced and complete. At the same 
time, the instruction in modern languages has assumed a 
more regular form which reinforces rather than antagonizes 
that of the classics." ^ Even at that time complaints were 
coming in about the overcrowded program of the colleges. 
In 1833 half of the secular holiday in each week was taken 
for regular work. M. Villemain, in commenting upon this, 
said : " The (school) day in its course of more than fifteen 
hours ^ is so filled with various occupations that one might 
fear it was overcrowded. But thanks to that very variety 
and to that exactness of discipline, never was the health of 
the children better, nor their work less fatiguing." * 

As has already been suggested, the reaction of 1850 dealt 
some heavy blows to the cause of education in France. It 

not only opened the way for the entrance of ^ 

T • 1 • n • 1 1 1 • • • Temporary 

political mnuence mto school administration, Ascendancy of 
but the former university standards with refer- Ecclesiastical 
ence to academic fitness for teaching and the 
power of inspection over private schools were seriously 
undermined. It was, so to speak, the last effort of the 
Church to maintain itself on an equality with the State as 
regards educational affairs in a struggle which has gone on 

1 Villemain, Rapport au rot, Mar. 3, 1843, p. 5. 
^ Ibid., p. 18. 

2 This was essentially the same that prevailed in the time of Villemain. 
* Ibid., p. 20. 



74 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

more or less consciously ever since the founding of the 
University of Paris. This last triumph of the Church, how- 
ever, was comparatively short lived. Thirty-two years later 
saw the loss of the power of control over public primary 
schools, and the abrogation of the Concordat and events of 
the last five years have completed the defeat. The State is 
now absolute and unique in its share in and its control over 
the educational interests of the nation. 

With the advent of the Second Republic in 1848, the old 

royal colleges resumed the name lyc^es (which they have 

The "Bifurca- retained ever since), and four years later their 

tion " in the curricula Underwent a complete reorganization. 

Lycee Course, rpj^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ well-defined divisions of the 

course : an elementary or preparatory division of two years, 
a grammar division of three years, marked by the dominance 
of the classics, and like the first division required of all the 
pupils ; and an upper division where there was a " bifurca- 
tion" in the course, the pupils being compelled to choose at 
the outset between letters and science. As far as the general 
subjects of instruction are concerned, there was apparently 
not much difference between these courses, but a careful 
study of the programs ^ shows very clearly that this bifur- 
cation meant almost an absolute choice between these two 
great areas of human knowledge, for the scientific branches 
in the letters section were treated most superficially, and the 
same was true, though perhaps to a less marked degree, of 
the literary subjects in the science section. The latter 
pupils, who up to the fork in the course had pursued Greek 
with their fellows in the other section, suddenly broke def- 
initely with that language after having studied it for two 
and a half years, a period but little more than enough to 
master the elements. This division of courses led to invidi- 
ous comparisons between the two groups of pupils, and the 
charge was undoubtedly true that opportunity was thus 
offered for the unsuccessful pupils in letters to abandon the 
work that they had found too difficult for them, and thus the 

1 Programmes du 30 Aoiit, 1852, Eecueil Fortoul, I., pp. 116-211. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 75 

less able ones were precipitated into the science section, A 
sudden relaxing of rigid restrictions is very likely to cause a 
reaction of this sort. A little time is needed to bring about 
the proper adjustments. The same result happened with us 
in the United States at the time of the rise of the scientific 
schools, and again with the opening of the business and 
manual courses in our high schools. Under this divided 
course system, boys were compelled to choose their future 
careers, practically irrevocably, at the end of the fourth form, 
in other words, when they were about fourteen years old. 
The literary course, -which led to the baccalaureate in letters 
(corresponding fairly closely to the bachelor of arts degree 
in the old American college during the ascendancy of the 
classical studies and before the elective system came into 
vogue), was required for entrance to the normal school, and 
to the arts and law work in the university, while the course 
in science, which led to the baccalaureate in science (corres- 
ponding to a general bachelor of science degree, if one may 
use such a term, based upon mathematics, mechanics, physics, 
chemistry, natural history, and drawing), fitted for entrance to 
the courses of the faculty of science and the medical school of 
the university, to the scientific division of the normal school, 
and to the higher government technical schools. ^ Indeed, 
the previous insufficiency of the preparation afforded for 
this latter class of schools was largely responsible for the in- 
troduction of this bifurcated course. Nevertheless, this rad- 
ical change, which is generally looked upon as a decided loss, 
was a severe shock to the spirit of classicism, which even to- 
day is the dominating force in French secondary and higher 
education, and the return to the former conditions which 
Minister Duruy brought about in 1864 furnished welcome 
relief to the troubled situation. 

Yet under the reorganization at that time, the old humanis- 
tic training of the lyc^es was becoming less jealous of its pre- 
rogatives, for it gave way to a more liberal course in science, 
a more extended course in history, and showed clearly a grow- 

1 D4cret, April 10, 1852, Arts. Sand 12. Recueil Fortoul, I,, pp. 40, 43. 



76 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ing emphasis upon modern languages. After all, the experi- 
ment of the "bifurcation" had not been in vain. The 
Restoration baccalaureate in letters came as before at the 
of the Old conclusion of the philosophy form ; successful 
Course. completion of another year, called elementary 
mathematics, gave the additional degree of bachelor of sci- 
ence, and constituted the natural preparation for the military 
school at Saint- Cyr ; while still a further year, called special 
mathematics, was necessary for entrance to the Polytechnic 
School. Under exceptional circumstances, certain modifica- 
tions could be obtained in this course, but the arrangement 
here outlined was the ordinary method of procedure. Conse- 
quently the pupil was no longer compelled to choose between 
letters and science at an age when it was enthely doubtful 
whether or not he could select his life career with any degree 
of certainty, and thenceforth the unfortunate longitudinal 
cleavage in the lycee course was a thing of the past. 

At the same time opportunity had to be found for the ex- 
pansion of that mechanical and industrial spirit that dates 
from the second third of the nineteenth century. 
" Modern '"'^ The leaders of the Convention had incorporated 
Secondary this idea in the program of the Central Schools, 
but these schools had not survived the change 
of empire. An attempt had been made at the royal college 
of Nancy (1829) and later at Versailles and la Eochelle to 
inaugurate a somewhat similar kind of professional training. 
Under the "bifurcation" of 1852 this instruction had been 
introduced into nearly all the lycdes outside Paris, and had 
been adopted by practically all the communal colleges. The 
reports of industrial development and consequent modifica- 
tions in the educational systems that had been coming from 
abroad^ were sufficiently disquieting to indicate that France 

1 Cf. Cousin, Mimoire sur V instruction secondaire dans le royaumc dc Prusse 
■pendant V anni. 1831. 

Marguerin et Mothere, Dc Venscigncment des classes moyennes et des classes 
ouvri^res en Anglctcrrc, 1864. 

BwDoi-^, Rapport sar Vital actuel de V enseigTiement special etde V enseigncmcnt 
prunaire en Bclgiquc, en Allemagne, et en Suisse, 1865. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 77 

must recognize that a new world was in the making, and she 
must put forth determined and definite efforts to keep pace 
with the march of events. Consequently a new departure 
was made in scientific teaching, and a course was organized 
under the name of "special secondary instruction." It was 
not professional education on the one hand, neither was it an 
extension of primary education as contemplated in the then 
defunct higher primary schools of M. Guizot, but its object 
was to supply the leaders of the great industrial army, just as 
the higher primary schools of a few years later were to pro- 
vide the under officers, and the lower primary schools the rank 
and file of this same civilian army. This new departure in 
secondary education was intended to establish that broad 
basis of general scientific knowledge, without in any sense 
becoming professional, which is indispensable for the leaders 
in the commercial, industrial, and financial world. It was, 
nevertheless, a complete education, " an education of another 
nature than classical education, but not of another order," ^ 
and, furthermore, the official program was sufficiently elas- 
tic to enable it to be adapted to serve the particular interests 
of the community in which the school was placed. Eor ex- 
ample, special attention would be devoted to geography and 
commercial law in the great maritime cities, to metallurgy 
or agricultural chemistry in the districts given over to mining 
or agriculture, to design in the lace or cotton centres. In a 
word, this special secondary instruction was intended to sup- 
ply the place filled by the Bealschule in Prussia. Although 
a new normal school was opened in 1866 exclusively for the 
preparation of teachers for this form of secondary instruction, 
the latter was not organized as in Germany in a special cate- 
gory of its own. Consequently it is perhaps true that it 
suffered from not being segregated and from not having a 
teaching force from top to bottom ardent partisans to support 
it in the inevitable struggle against classic training. Be that 
as it may, for the first years it was looked upon quite as an 
interloper in the lyc^es and colleges, and was unquestionably 

1 GviEARD, Enseignement secondaire, I., p. 78. 



78 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

on a considerably lower plane than the classical work with 
which it was competing. In 1881, however, the former cer- 
tificate which crowned the work of the course was replaced 
by a baccalaureate of special secondary instruction, and ten 
years later the whole course was considerably modified. At 
that time even the name was changed, and for the next decade 
it was known as " modern secondary instruction." The vi- 
cissitudes of this science instruction in the secondary schools 
mark the progress of the struggle between the scientific 
and the humanistic spirit. Although practically coming 
into the social life with the Eenaissance, the former did not 
make itself seriously felt in the secondary school imtil 
the period of the Eevolution. In this new program of 
1891, it was still subordinate to the classical training, 
although more and more careers under the auspices of 
the State were opening up before its graduates. The 
latest legislation, in 1902, however, finally established the 
parity between these two disciplines, at least as far as 
official regulation could do so, and to-day the course in 
letters and the course in science extend side by side with 
the most liberal opportunity possible of passing from one 
to the other. 

From the beginning of the Third Eepublic to the entire 
reorganization of the whole scheme of secondary instruction 
Tendencies ^^^^ Occurred in 1902 and the period immedi- 
of Classic ately following, the reforms of classical in- 
dui'in°"™o struction have been along three lines: (1) in 
Third cutting down an enormously overcharged pro- 
Republic. gY2Lm ; (2) in greater emphasis upon the im- 
portance of the physical side of education ; (3) in improved 
methods of work. The first two of these are really phases 
of the same general tendency. The average number of 
hours of class work per week from each of the classes from 
the eighth to the philosophy forms inclusive was reduced 
from nearly twenty-six in the program of 1874 to a little 
less than twenty in that of 1890. There was furthermore a 
well defined tendency toward a sloughing off of old methods ; 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 79 

the modern languages began to be taught more particularly 
from the point of view of speaking, and the classics from 
the point of view of reading. To that latter end Latin 
versification disappeared entirely, and composition work in 
the classic languages was greatly reduced. Latin and Greek 
were begun in the sixth and at the middle of the fifth forms 
respectively instead of in the eighth and the sixth respec- 
tively according to the program of 1874. Finally there has 
been a very definite division of the school course into three 
series or cycles : the elementary classes ; the grammar 
classes ; and the higher classes. This division was intended 
to serve the same purpose in the secondary schools as the 
concentric circle plan that prevails in the primary schools, 
and was established with the idea of giving the pupil who is 
compelled to leave school before the end of the course 
certain definite notions that he can carry away with him. 
While the school-leaving problem has attracted considerable 
attention and has caused no little uneasiness in France, 
nevertheless it has not reached the acute stage there that 
it has with us, in the primary school on account of the 
more efficient enforcement of the compulsory school law, 
and the greater commercial value of the leaving certificate, 
and in the secondary school because the tuition fee and 
the social prestige attached to this grade of school tend to 
make its pupils a selected class, and furthermore the bacca- 
laureate is the only key that will open the way to a pro- 
fessional career and to numerous branches of the government 
service. 

But of all the reforms in the field of secondary education 
that have been carried out under the Third Eepublic, the 
most significant has been the establishment of „ : 

^ f p • ^ , T Secondary 

lycees for girls under the law of December 21, Education 
1880. With the possible exception of the ofGii-is- 
schools at Ecouen and Saint-Denis, which Napoleon had 
founded expressly for the education of the daughters of his 
officers, whatever had been done up to this period had been 
undertaken either through individual initiative, or else in 



80 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the private institutions of the religious teaching bodies. At 
all events, in 1867, after the passage of the new law with 
reference to the establishment of primary schools for girls, 
in the words of the Minister of Public Instruction : " There 
yet remains one important thing to do : it is necessary to 
provide the girls with secondary instruction, which, strictly 
speaking, does not exist in France."^ Consequently he 
recommended the creation of a series of extension classes to 
be held in the city halls or other public buildings and to be 
taught by the professors in the boys' lycdes. This girls' 
secondary instruction was to include only a very limited 
number of subjects drawn from the new program of the 
boys' special secondary instruction (from which the dead 
languages were excluded), with altogether only one or two 
lessons per day extending over a period of three or four 
years. From the economic point of view, this was certainly 
a valuable suggestion, since the government was able to 
double the number of schools at no additional cost. The 
merely nominal running expenses aside from the remxmera- 
tion of the teaching staff could be more than carried by the 
proposed tuition fee of fifteen or twenty francs a month, and 
a substantial amount would be left for free scholarships. 
But from the educational point of view its chief virtue lay 
in the fact that it marked the beginning of a radical de- 
parture in the traditional policy. The suggestion of Minister 
Duruy was taken up with alacrity, twenty-four such courses 
being established the first year. But the enthusiasm quickly 
ran its course, for in the following year the number of new 
foundations fell to ten. At all events, by 1879, only fourteen 
of the forty-seven courses that had been started were still 
in existence.^ The movement cannot have made any very 
great stir in the educational world, for the statistics of 
secondary education published in 1876 contain no report at 

1 Instructions aux rectairs, 30 Oct., 1867, in Cimdaires ct instructions offi.- 
cielles relatives a I 'instruction puhlique, Ministerc de M. Durxiy, p. 543. 

2 See, Rapport a la Chamhrc des D4put4s, in Lyc6es et colUges de jeunes 
filles, p. 148. 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 81 

all of the progress of the work, nor even do they make any 
mention of the experiment. Indeed, although there was a 
diploma for successful completion of the three years' work, it 
would have been rather surprising if success had come to 
such an adventitious undertaking, without special organiza- 
tion, without appropriate class rooms, without a regular teach- 
ing force of its own, without legislative sanction. But viewed 
in the light of subsequent developments, it cannot be con- 
sidered as a vain and profitless experiment, for it paved the 
way for the establishment of a real system of secondary 
education for girls. 

With the passage of the law of December 21, 1880, public 
state secondary education for girls, thanks to the efforts of 
M. Camille S^e, became a reality in France. Under the 
terms of this law, the secondary course, whether in a lyc^e 
or in a communal college, lasted five years, divided into two 
periods of three and two years respectively, and was open 
to pupils of twelve years of age and upwards. The studies 
of the first period were all required, but in the last two years 
only twelve or thirteen hours out of twenty were prescribed. 
On the whole the work corresponded fairly closely to the 
old English-modern language course that formerly existed in 
our American high schools. Save for the suppression of the 
single hour devoted to the optional study of Latin in each 
of the last two years, the increased emphasis put upon 
manual and gymnastic work throughout the course, and a 
natural improvement in methods, the program as it came 
through the last revision in 1897 is in all essential points 
substantially the same as it was originally. The detailed 
discussion will consequently be reserved for a 

later chapter. Secondary 

Scarcely had these girls' secondary schools Normal 
been provided for than the government took the 
only logical step possible and voted to create a secondary 
normal school in order to furnish the recruitment of the 
teaching force of this new class of schools. The bill, intro- 

6 



82 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

duced in the lower house March 3, 1881, declared "urgent," 
reported and adopted without discussion on May 14th, was 
finally passed by the Senate and became a law on July 
26th. 

With the establishment of the higher primary normal 
school for young men in December of the following year, 

The Third ^^® government completed a period of enor- 
Republic and mous educational activity. Within less than 

Education. ^^^^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^ ^ ^^-^i each of the ninety de- 
partments of the country, with the assistance of the State, 
had been required to provide adequate normal school train- 
ing for the future teachers of both sexes for its boys' and 
girls' elementary schools, the State had founded two great 
schools to train the teachers for these departmental normal 
schools, had created a system of girls' secondary schools and 
crowned it with a normal school of its own, had recreated 
the system of higher primary education both in special 
schools of its own and in the extension courses {cours com- 
pUmentaires) attached to the lower primary schools, and 
finally had passed those two great fundamental laws pro- 
viding for universal compulsory elementary instruction, and 
declaring that in the primary schools of every order, the in- 
struction should be not only gratuitous, but furthermore 
absolutely free from all ecclesiastical control. This is a 
series of educational achievements that stands without a 
parallel in history, at least within the same length of 
time, and it has enabled France to rise from a position of 
mediocrity in the educational scale to a place in the very 
front rank among the nations of the world. During the 
period of the Third Eepublic, the budget of the Ministry 
of Public Instruction has increased fi-om thirty-two millions 
of francs in 1870, to a little more than two hundred and 
seventy-one millions^ in 1908, and the marked decrease in 

1 This takes no account of the millions spent by the towns and cities all 
over France, for whicli no accurate fip;ures are available. Yet large as these 
figures may be they are quite overshadowed by the budgets of the army and 



PROGRESS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 83 

illiteracy from twenty-five and thirty-seven per cent for 
men and women respectively in 1870 to four and seven- 
tenths per cent and seven and two-tenths per cent respec- 
tively in 1898 ^ gives convincing proof that this immense 
amount has not been expended in vain. 

navy departments which fell a little short of eleven hundred millions of francs 
that same year. Almanack de Gotha, 1909, p. 799. 
1 Annuaire de lajeunesse, 1907, p. 22. 



CHAPTER V 

THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF THE 
SECONDARY SCHOOL SYSTEM 

In many respects the French secondary school system of to- 
day still retains some of the essential features of the organ- 
ization imposed upon it by Napoleon a century 

Centralkation ^S^> ^^^ ^*-*^ ^^^ least significant of these ap- 
pears in its excessive centralization. This 
centralization, which has been at the same time one of its 
most characteristic peculiarities and one of its most strik- 
ing defects, was severely scored more than once in the testi- 
mony before the parliamentary investigation of the Eibot 
Commission a few years ago.^ This extreme centralization, 
however, is not unique in the department of the JNIinister of 
Public Instruction, but seems almost to pervade the national 
character, and it really results in a governmental centraliza- 
tion that is equalled in few other nations. The Napoleonic 
administration again is doubtless in no small means respon- 
sible for this condition of affairs, but it seems to present a 
decidedly anomalous situation for a republic. One must 
remember, however, that the French Republic is not a union 
of several independent states, as is the case in the United 
States, in Switzerland, and even in the modern German Em- 
pire, but it represents a homogeneous people subdivided into 
smaller units for purposes of administration. More impor- 
tant still is the survival of the monarchical ideas and ideals 
that are everywhere traceable. Indeed, it would require a 
fine discernment to differentiate the republican political and 
social life from that of a constitutional monarchy like Italy, 

1 EnqicSte sur V ervseignevunt secondaire, Paris, 1897, 6 vols. 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 85 

for example. More than one Frenchman has said that if, by- 
some political reversal, there should be a monarch at the 
head of the State instead of a president, the external evi- 
dences would be hardly noticeable. The changes in govern- 
ment in France during the nineteenth century were essentially 
political changes rather than social. The outward life of the 
nation still goes on as before. So centralization is not funda- 
mentally distasteful to the French idea. 

Viewed from the standpoint of civil and political control, 
and again that of educational direction, France presents two 
distinct systems of administration, though at n'vil a d 
several points these systems overlap. Politi- Political 
cally the whole country is divided into ninety Divisions, 
departments, each department being subdivided into arron- 
dissements, each arrondissement into cantons, and each 
canton into communes. The departments correspond roughly 
to our states, the arrondissements to our congressional 
districts, and the communes to our towns or cities. The 
canton, which is merely a judicial district, the subdivision of 
an arrondissement, and of some slight bearing in the system 
of primary education, does not figure at all in the field of 
secondary education, and need not concern us further. The 
Minister of the Interior at Paris appoints a prefect over each 
department and a sub-prefect for each arrondissement, while 
local self-government is restricted chiefly to the election of 
the municipal council whose members in turn choose the 
mayor of the commune. Through the medium of the pre- 
fects and sub-prefects the general government thus reaches 
out directly to the far corners of the country. 

Starting with the largest political subdivision of the 
nation, the departments, and grouping them in what was 
originally a more or less arbitrary fashion, we arrive at the 
academy, the largest educational unit. At the present time 
there are seventeen academies, each one nominally having a 
university of its own, and each one administered by a rector. 
For a brief period in the very middle of the last century 
there were as many academies as departments, each of these 



86 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

with its own rector, but this arrangement, which was not of 
long duration, gave place in 1854 to the present scheme, 
most of the displaced rectors being retained as academy in- 
spectors and made subordinate to the rector of the academy. 
These academies to-day vary in size from Paris with nine de- 
partments and approximately five and three-quarter millions 
of population to Chamb^ry with only two departments and 
under seventy-eight thousand inhabitants. 

At first sight the three degrees of education in France 
would seem to correspond exactly with the three degrees in 

America, for they follow a similar nomencla- 
of^Edu^aTioir ^^^^' primary, secondary, and higher, terms 

that are perfectly familiar to us. It is this 
very similarity of terms that renders the deception more 
subtle, and a closer examination of the French system will 
dissipate some of our preconceived notions. The secondary 
and the primary systems are not superimposed one upon the 
other, but rather run along concurrently, for the primary 
system trenches upon what we call the secondary field, and 
the secondary system has extended its elementary classes 
down so that it is paralleling the work of the primary sys- 
tem. The new program of 1902 attempted to mollify this 
latter situation somewhat in changing the name of the tenth 
and ninth forms of the lyc^es and colleges to the first 
and second preparatory classes, in grouping the eighth and 
seventh forms together in the elementary division and be- 
ginning secondary instruction proper with the sixth form. 
Although there have been certain internal modifications, the 
change thus effected has been more apparent than real. At 
the same time an attempt was made to modify the parallel- 
ism between the two systems and to coordinate them so that 
the primary school course should form a regular preparation 
for the secondary school,^ but this has thus far failed to real- 
ize the purpose of its sponsors. As a matter of fact, in most 
parts of the country comparatively few pupQs pass from the 

1 Dicret, May 30, 1902, Art. I., Plan d' Uudes et programmes d' enseignement 
dans les lycees et colUges de gar(;ons, 1907-1908, p. xsi. 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 87 

primary school to the secondary school save the government 
scholarship holders who are selected by competitive exam- 
ination. Although the latter vary in different sections, in 
1906 they amoimted to less than two per cent of the total 
secondary school population.^ " The middle class citizen 
puts his child in a lyc^e, not in order to make him a learned 
man, but in order that his son should not be in the same 
institution with the son of his servant or his concierge." ^ 
This may be a rather strong statement, but it contains 
a good bit of truth, and in the last analysis the motive that 
sends one boy to the primary school and his neighbor to 
a secondary school is fundamentally sociological. Just as 
in New York City, where certain peculiar economic and 
social conditions have brought about a somewhat similar sit- 
uation, one boy goes to a private secondary school so called, 
and another to a public primary school, yet in the elementary 
classes the courses of study are largely the same. 

This brings up the mooted question of the real significance 
of secondary education. Wherein is it differentiated from 
primary education below and higher education what is 
above ? Formerly there was general agreement Secondary 

, ,1 ... p 1 1 !_• Education? 

as to the connotation or secondary education : 
it unquestionably meant classical education. As the " mod- 
ern side " subjects fairly broke into the secondary school, we 
began to weigh our earlier distinctions and to find them 
wanting. In France the distinction between secondary and 
primary has always been drawn along purely social lines. 
Between secondary and higher, originally there was no dif- 
ferentiation, and now it may roughly be expressed as the 
difference between cultural and professional, for the great 
majority of students in the universities to-day are pursuing 
purely professional courses. In America the distinction 
seems to rest solely upon a chronological basis. It would 
appear much more natural to express the difference in psy- 

^ Steeg, Eapport sur U budget de Vinstruction publique de I'exercice, 1908, p. 
73. 

2 BiLLAZ, in RiBOT, Enquete, II., p. 107. 



88 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

chological terms. As primary education is the education of 
the child, so secondary education is the education of the 
adolescent. Thus secondary education is not exclusively 
classical education, nor the so-called " modern education," 
and it is most ambiguous to define it as intermediary between 
elementary and higher education. It has a purpose and a 
content entirely its own, and the latter is, or should be, 
drawn from the subjects that are suited for the development 
of the adolescent mind. It may be linguistic, it may be 
literary, it may be scientific, it may be social. It certainly 
must be ethical, and it must be real. 

In France, as was suggested above, the field of secondary 
education is marked off by social boundaries. However 

The French contradictory this notion has been to the 
Secondary principles of democracy, the authorities have 
^ °" ■ striven in vain to overthrow it. Formerly 
the conservative influence was the hierarchy of the Church, 
now it is the hierarchy of the professions and of function- 
aryism. The French secondary school occupies a unique 
position among the secondary schools of the world, for 
it is really complete in itself. It is neither dependent upon 
the primary school as a source of supply, for it has its own 
elementary classes where the rudiments are taught, nor 
does it necessarily send its pupils to the university, for it 
provides a liberal education within its own walls, and the 
possession of the baccalaureate opens the way for entrance 
to the government military and naval academies, the engia- 
eering schools, the normal school, and to certain preferred 
appointments in the post office and the interior departments, 
be it remembered, however, in every case only after com- 
petitive examination. As M. Br^al pointed out some years 
ago, " While in England and in Germany one is not consid- 
ered a man of letters unless he has passed through the 
universities, for which the colleges are the preparation and 
the vestibule, with us one's studies are generally deemed 
complete when one has finished the last year of the lyc^e. 
After that there is nothing left but to enter upon a definite 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 89 

career." 1 For American readers M. Br^al would probably 
have said "to enter upon the preparation for a definite 
career," for every year thousands enter upon their profes- 
sional preparation for law, medicine, and pharmacy. It is 
still true that the chief function of the lyc^e and the college 
is to prepare students especially for the great government 
military, naval, and engineering schools, for the normal 
school, and for distinctly university faculties of arts, 
sciences, law, medicine, and pharmacy. It is absolutely 
impossible to find out the proportion of students that 
complete the secondary school who do not carry on their 
studies farther, but the estimates of various secondary 
teachers vary from " one third " to " very few." The 
latter approximation is probably nearer the truth, and it is 
safe to assume that in the main these " few " represent the 
boys that have failed in the competitive examinations for 
admission to the higher government schools, and are infer- 
entially the weaker students. 

The whole system of public education in France is put 
under the charge of the Minister of Public Instruction and 
Fine Arts. With the lack of national control ,,. . , 

.-, . , ^ . , „ „ , . Minister oi 

that prevails m the United States we find it Public 
difficult to realize the extent of centralization Instruction, 
that exists in France, as well as the multifarious responsi- 
bilities that devolve upon this Minister of Education. 
Suffice it to say that not only is he the head of the three 
degrees of education, but he also directs the Department of 
Fine Arts, several French schools abroad, the Bureau of 
Longitude, the various astronomical observatories, the 
National Library, and scientific missions abroad, The 
budget of his department for 1908 carried an appropriation 
of 300,000 francs for the expenses of an expedition to the 
South Pole.2 The Minister of Public Instruction is a 
cabinet officer, and consequently owes his appointment to 
the President of the Eepublic. The bureaucratic organiza- 

1 Bri<;al, Quel que mots siir V instruction puhlique, p. 156. 
* Rapport de la commission du budget, 1908, sec. i, p. 242. 



90 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

tion of the portfolio, however, prevents the political charac- 
ter of the office, with the constant danger of sudden changes 
of ministry, from reacting harmfully upon the schools. 
During the thirty-eight years of the Third Eepublic, there 
have been thirty-seven ministers in power, although the five 
changes that have occurred since 1898 have been rearrange- 
ments of the portfolios rather than distinct party mutations. 
The traditions and the general policy are thoroughly secured 
by means of the numerous bureaus that in reality take care 
of the greater part of the business of the department. Save 
for a few of the higher educational officers who are named 
by the President of the Eepublic, the Minister directly 
or indirectly holds the power of appointment and removal 
over all his subordinates in the educational system. There 
are nevertheless sufficient safeguards so that no faithful 
officer may be unjustly discriminated against. The Minister 
is thus held responsible for the working of his department, 
and for the execution of the lois of the parliament, and the 
decrets of the President. The general regulations of his 
office in elaboration and application of the foregoing lois 
and decrets are known as arreUs, while his special commu- 
nications to the rectors and prefects for the purpose of 
clearing up any uncertainty as to the interpretation of 
the above or in dealing with minor regulations of the 
service are issued under the name of instructions. 

To guide him safely through the legal difficulties of the 

questions that may arise, the Minister has a kind of personal 

cabinet of lawyers, known as the comite du 

Committee on j . • mi • i j • . • ^ 

Litigation, contcnticux. ihis body, sixteen m number, 
has purely advisory functions, and the Min- 
ister is under no obligation to consult it, or even to adopt 
its conclusions after he has consulted it. Composed, how- 
ever, of eminent lawyers, it renders valuable aid to tlie 
Minister who, pressed as he is on all sides, must depend 
largely on the counsel of his subordinates. 

Eeference has already been made to the bureaucratic 
organization of the educational system. There are in all 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 91 

thirty bureaus under the control of the Minister of Public 
Instruction, and of these seventeen are concerned with 
strictly educational affairs, distributed as fol- 
lows : cabinet of the Minister, one bureau ; 
higher education, five bureaus ; secondary education, five 
bureaus; primary education, five bureaus; and accounts, 
one bureau. The others are divided among the departments 
of fine arts, finance, the archives, and public buildings. 
Each of the three divisions of the educational system is 
under the control of a director, and these men are the real 
executive heads of the system. They are all conspicuous 
for their educational qualifications, for they have gradually 
made their way up the line, and promotion in France is 
slow, but merited. 

The five bureaus under the director of secondary educa- 
tion are occupied respectively with : (1) inspection, curri- 
cula, programs, and discipline of secondary Direction of 
schools for boys and girls, examinations and Secondary 
scholarships; (2) teaching force of the boys' Education, 
lyc^es ; (3) bursars, and financial administration of the 
boys' lyc^es, construction of boys' secondary schools; (4) 
teaching force and financial administration of the boys' 
communal colleges ; (5) teaching force, financial adminis- 
tration, and construction of girls' secondary schools. These 
bureaus were all reorganized a few years ago, so that they 
now represent a more logical and systematic division of 
function. When we remember that even the minutest de- 
tails of all the lyc^es in France and Algeria are regulated 
from the office of the Minister in Paris, we begin to realize 
what an immense amount of work there is to be done there. 

In educational circles, at least, France has developed the 
functions of the advisory council far ahead of us in Amer- 
ica. The tendency with us for many years 
was to administer educational affairs through Council'^ 
committee control ; when that failed we turned 
to one man control ; and we are but now coming to appre- 
ciate the advantages of the dovetailing of these two systems. 



92 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

In France, the Minister of Public Instruction has his supe- 
rior council, and his consulting committee of public instruc- 
tion, while the rector has his university and his academic ^ 
councils. At the present time the superior council (conseil 
superieur de Vinstruction jpublique) consists of fifty-four 
members, the majority of whom are elected by their peers. 
They are drawn from every department of public instruc- 
tion and form a body of men peculiarly qualified to handle 
intelligently the important questions that come before them, 
for they are in active contact with the departments of work 
which they represent. Aside from the nine members rep- 
resenting public instruction and the four representing pri- 
vate institutions that are appointed by the President of the 
Bepublic, they are all chosen by the teaching force in the 
various departments of higher, secondary, and primary ^ 
instruction from among their own colleagues. There are 
ten representatives of secondary schools ; one for each of 
the eight orders of agr^gds and two for the communal col- 
leges. Such is the constitution of this council that what- 
ever educational discussion may come up, there is at least 
one member that is vitally interested in its solution. If, 
for example, the question of cutting down the time for 
history in the lyc^es is broached, the delegate of the his- 
tory teachers is on the ground and can protect the interests 
of his own subject ; if there is any attempt to alter the cur- 
riculum of the ordinary primary schools, there are six repre- 
sentatives at large to speak for the primary school interests. 
It may be worth noting, however, that the representation on 
this council from top to bottom is directly proportional to 
the academic rank of the work in question and inversely 
proportional to the number of individuals involved. That is 
to say, the members of the Institute, which is a compara- 
tively small body, have five representatives, while the pri- 
mary schools, whose teachers are counted by the scores of 
thousands, have only six representatives, and these are 

^ Academic here signifies belonging to thcacademj', in its technical sense. 
2 The suffrage in the primary systena is decidedly limited. Cf. infra. 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 93 

chosen from among and by the principals of the primary 
normal schools, and all the various inspectors that are 
attached to the primary system. 

This council has only two regular meetings per year, the 
bulk of the work being put into shape for the consideration 
of the full body by a sub-committee known as the permanent 
section. The nine presidential appointees together with six 
other members chosen by the Minister make up this perma- 
nent section. Among its duties are: (1) to study the pro- 
grams and the regulations before these are submitted to the 
whole council; (2) to give advice on the creation of faculties, 
lyc^es, colleges, primary normal schools; on the foundation, 
change, or supervision of chairs ; on books which ought to be 
kept out of the public schools as texts, as library books, or 
as prizes ; and finally on all questions of studies, adminis- 
tration, discipline, and school affairs in general, that the 
Minister may refer to it. 

The powers of the council are administrative, judicial, and 
disciplinary. The Minister may consult the council on any 
matter he chooses, but upon the more vital questions of 
programs, methods of instruction, conduct of examinations, 
and administrative and disciplinary regulations that apply 
to the public schools, he can make no valid regulation 
without first submitting the question to them for discussion, 
and he is obliged to follow their recommendations.^ The 
jurisdiction of the council also covers the questions of the 
general regulation of examinations and the conferring of 
degrees; it decides upon books, whether texts for general 
reading, or as prizes, that should be excluded from private 
schools as being contrary to good morals, the Constitution, 
and the law; it passes upon the applications of foreigners 
to teach in, to open, or to direct a school. The council is 
furthermore the final court of appeal against the judgments 
of the university, the academic, and the departmental coun- 
cils in matters of contention or discipline. The acts of the 

1 Loi, Feb. 27, 1880, Greakd, La legislation de V instruction primaire en 
France, V., p. 129. 



94 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

council are issued in the name of the Minister, but with the 
legend corresponding to our " with the advice and consent of 
the council." ■ 

The consulting committee {co^niU consultatif) is a body 

whose functions, like those of the committee on litigation, 

are purely advisory. In reality it consists of 

Committee three separate committees representing each of 
the three degrees of education. The secondary 
section is made up of the general inspectors of secondary 
schools, the general inspector of modern languages, the vice- 
rector of the Academy of Paris, the director of the higher 
normal school, and the director of secondary education. 
This section is not kept so busy as the primary section, for 
the former's functions are practically confined to advising 
the Minister on changes, promotions, and other questions 
affecting the teaching force of the secondary schools, but 
when one remembers that this body in the boys' lyc^es 
alone is considerably more than five thousand strong, even 
this is no small task. 

Surrounded as he is by advisory boards, the French Min- 
ister of Public Instruction would seem to have little oppor- 
tunity for the exercise of his own initiative. 

^M^nisto^^ There is more or less truth in this criticism, 
but it requires a remarkable man to do more, 
and since the days of Victor Duruy and Jules Simon there 
have been few such. The Minister is essentially a politician 
in the better sense of the word. He is chosen not for any 
peculiar fitness for, nor for any particular interest in educa- 
tional affairs, but primarily for the strength he will bring to 
the cabinet. When he has done that for which he was 
chosen, when he has defended the government on the floor 
of the senate or the chamber, when he has fought for his 
budget in the deliberations of the cabinet and later before 
the parliament, when he has presided over the numerous 
bodies of which he is president, when he has made the 
scores of speeches at political and other gatherings that are 
demanded of him, and when he has performed the thousand 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 95 

and one duties th.at devolve upon him, he may be excused if 
he follows the advice of his counsellors and mechanically 
approves the papers that are put before him for his signature. 
It is one of the weaknesses of the French administrative sys- 
tem that too much of the time of the higher officials is taken 
up with petty details that might just as well be performed 
by trustworthy and qualified subordinates. 

By means of the general inspectors, four for science, seven 
for letters, three for modern languages, and two for accounts, 
the Minister is able to keep in reasonably close 
touch with the progress of secondary educa- ^ General 

lnsi)6ctors 

tion throughout the country. On account of 
the multitudinous routine duties that he has to perform, this 
is unfortunately done in a more or less perfunctory fashion. 
These general inspectors are men of a high order of intelli- 
gence and ability, but under the present practice they are 
left to work somewhat alone. Under Minister Duruy there 
was a very definite attempt to unify the work of these in- 
spectors. 1 He called them together every fall before they 
left on their tours of inspection and gave them specific direc- 
tions for the work of that particular year. Since his time, 
however, the custom has been more honored in the breach 
than in the observance. It is rather unfortunate that this is 
the case, for with only fourteen inspectors and about four 
hundred and fifty schools to be visited at least once each 
year, no one institution can receive much attention. The 
frequent changes of district, it being the policy not to have 
an inspector visit the same schools more than two years 
in succession at the most, render the need of careful direc- 
tion all the more acute, for the inspector is thus unable 
to carry out any systematic policy for improving the effect- 
iveness of the teaching corps. Nevertheless, it must be ad- 
mitted that the teachers with whom these inspectors come 
in contact are on the whole an unusually efficient set of 
individuals. 

^Lavisse, Testimony before the Parliamentary Commission, in Ribot, 
EnquHe, I., p. 35. 



96 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Leaving the central authorities at Paris we come to the 

rectors, one for each of the seventeen academies. The rector 

necessarily holds the doctor's degree, and he is 
Rector 

appointed by the President of the Kepublic 

on recommendation of the Minister. The latter is the titu- 
lary rector of the Academy of Paris, the actual duties being 
performed by an ohicial known as the vice-rector, although 
the importance and the responsibilities of this latter are far 
greater than those of the heads of the other academies who 
bear the title of rector. The rector is the chief officer of 
all the educational institutions of his academy, responsible 
for the proper functioning of the most remote primary school 
as well as for directing the work of the university that is 
situated at the academy seat. In the main the faculties 
engross the major part of his personal attention, the second- 
ary schools being turned over to the academy inspectors, and 
the elementary schools to the primary inspectors who are 
under the immediate direction of the academy inspectors. By 
means of monthly reports to the Minister, the rector keeps 
the latter in close touch with the local educational situation, 
and in case of difficulty he asks for specific instructions. He 
is the medium of communication between the Minister and 
the public schools. All the ministerial circulars are ad- 
dressed directly to the rectors and are transmitted by them 
through the academy inspectors to the proper lower authori- 
ties. Even the humblest servant of the educational system 
has the right to address a communication to the Minister, 
but in every case it must follow the line of the educational 
hierarchy, and the response will retrace the same devious 
path. Every year the financial reports with the proposed 
budgets for the ensuing year for the various public institu- 
tions of superior or secondary instruction are sent to the 
rector and he transmits them with his comments to the Min- 
ister. The rector is president ex officio of the administrative 
board of each lyc^e and college in his academy, and he has 
the entire power of appointment and removal over the pro- 
bationary tutors of these schools. He is required to visit, 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 97 

either at first hand or else through the medium of the acad- 
emy inspector, the private schools of his academy once a 
year, but this inspection is limited to the fields of hygiene 
and morals. The diversity of the work, covering the whole 
gamut of educational activity from university president to 
city school superintendent, is thus seen to make large de- 
mands upon the rectors, but they are all picked men, chosen 
alike for intellectual attainments and executive ability, and 
in the main they acquit themselves well of their tasks. The 
rector is able profoundly to influence the effectiveness of the 
whole school system. If he is a progressive man that is will- 
ing to accept new ideas, or better still if he is fecund enough 
to originate them himself, the educational activities of the 
academy expand beyond the ordinary old-time limits of 
schoolroom influence. As instances of this progressive 
spirit, one might cite the summer course that has been given 
for the last few years in Paris for gymnastic teachers, 
and the lectures on puericulture and infant hygiene that were 
inaugurated last year (1908) in the Academy of Lille. In 
this latter academy, the schools will average up well with 
those of Paris, if. indeed, they do not surpass them in some 
points. 

Eeference has already been made to the fact that each 
of the higher administrative officers of the school sys- 
tem has his advisory councils. The rector has 
two, the university council and the acad- 'caun'^r 
emic council. The attributions of the former 
are restricted to superior education; hence they need not 
concern us further. The academic council on the other 
hand, although formerly possessing jurisdiction over the 
three degrees of education, is now almost exclusively 
occupied with secondary education. In spite of its change 
of function, the character of the membership has remained 
substantially unmodified for nearly thirty years. The mem- 
bers are of three sorts, ex officio, elective, and appointive. The 
first of these include the rector, the academy inspectors, the 
deans of the faculties, and the directors of the higher schools 

7 



98 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

or the preparatory schools for superior instruction ; ^ the sec- 
ond, a professor chosen from among and by the regular teach- 
ing force of each of the above faculties or schools, two 
professors of letters and two of science representing the ly- 
c^e, and one of letters and one of science representing the 
colleges, chosen under like conditions ; the third, a head 
master of a lyc^e, a principal of a college, and two members 
selected from the general councils of the departments, and 
two from the municipal councils that contribute to the ex- 
penses of superior or secondary education, — all these six mem- 
bers receiving their appointments from the Minister. There 
are two interesting features about the composition of this 
council as contrasted with that of the superior council : first, 
that it contains no representative of primary instruction, and 
second, that it reckons among its membership four represen- 
tatives from political life. The method of ministerial ap- 
pointment, however, precludes the likelihood of these latter 
members being mere political workers, and it emphasizes 
again the influence of the centralized character of the educa- 
tional system, suggesting that in many respects France is yet 
far from being a pure representative government. Represen- 
tatives of the people are chosen, to be sure, but they are often 
as in this case " selected " representatives. 

The powers and duties of the academic council with refer- 
ence to secondary education within the academy are very 
similar to those of the superior council for all of France. 
They are administrative, judicial, and disciplinary. On the 
administrative side, they deal with regulations relative to 
lyc^es and communal colleges, with the budgets and the 
financial reports from these institutions, with all administra- 
tive and disciplinary questions that the IMinister chooses to 
submit to it, and finally it reports annually on the public 
secondary schools, and the advisable changes to be instituted 

1 These two latter classes of schools embrace the superior schools of phar- 
macj', and of medicine and pharmacy, the preparatory schools for medicine and 
pharmacy, and the preparatory schools for higher instruction in the faculties 
of arts and science. 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 99 

therein. In judicial and disciplinary matters, it pronounces 
the suspension of secondary teachers for more than a year 
with partial or total loss of salary, it revokes temporarily 
or permanently their right to teach, and it has power to au- 
thorize the opening of private secondary schools. The 
superior council is the final court of appeal in these ques- 
tions. The council has two regular meetings per year, one 
just before the summer vacation, and the other just after the 
opening of the school year. At the first the reports of the 
previous year are examined, and at the second the budget 
for the next is considered. The precautions taken to shut 
out annoying discussions are interesting, and are rather 
typical of the educational procedure in France. At the 
opening of each session the rector distributes a schedule of 
the business to be taken up, and if a member wishes to sub- 
mit a proposition for discussion he must send it in writing 
to the rector before the meeting. The latter refers it to the 
proper committee, and this committee reports to the rector 
whether the matter should be taken up immediately, should 
be postponed until a later session, or should be considered at 
all. Inasmuch as the rector is an ex officio member of each 
committee, he is thus a powerful factor in "guiding" the 
action of the council, and he has ample opportunity to kill a 
bothersome question in committee. 

Although by force of circumstances, the academy inspector 
is compelled to devote the greater part of his time to the 
primary schools, yet in the field of secondary 
education he is the personal representative of ^cademy 
the rector. There are ninety-eight academy 
inspectors, at least one for each department except Haut 
Ehin, which so far as secondary inspection is concerned is 
joined to Doubs. In the departments of the Nord and the 
Bouches-du-Ehone where the population is considerably 
congested by reason of the cities of Lille and Marseille, 
there is an additional inspector who devotes all his time to 
the primary schools, and has practically the powers and 



100 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

duties of our city superintendent of schools. The corre- 
sponding inspector at Paris bears the title of " director of 
primary instruction for the department of the Seine," but his 
functions are so specialized that he can hardly be considered 
as an academy inspector. In this same department there 
are seven other inspectors who are under the exclusive 
authority of the rector, and two of this number are wholly 
occupied with public secondary schools. From the academy 
inspector down, the appointment of the personnel of sec- 
ondary education rests with the Minister, but these positions 
are so fortified by examinations and service qualifications, 
that there is small chance of incompetents receiving the 
appointments, even if there were any desire to bestow them 
upon favorites. Theoretically the academy inspectors may 
be chosen from the executive officers or the upper grade 
teachers in the secondary schools, or from the primary in- 
spectors, in either case with the additional requirement of 
the master's degree or ten years of educational service, but 
in practice the choice is made from the lyc^e teachers who 
are agr^g^s. Eecent legislation ^ has attempted still further 
to assure the competence of the academy inspectors, for now 
nobody may receive a permanent appointment unless he has 
served for a probationary period of not less than two years. 
The effectiveness of this legislation will become apparent 
when the Minister refuses to make some of these provisional 
appointments permanent. There are those who doubt seri- 
ously whether this will be done. Experience alone can 
furnish the answer. As was stated above, in the depart- 
ment of secondary education the academy inspector is the 
right-hand man of the rector, inspecting for him, presiding 
for him at the meetings of the administrative boards of the 
lyc^es and colleges, sending him annual reports on the ad- 
ministrative officers and the teaching force of these schools, 
especially keeping him informed on the relations between 

1 D4cret, July 10, 1906, WisSEMANS, Code dc V cnscigncment sccondaire, p. 
235. 



ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION OF SYSTEM 101 

the municipalities and the schools, and acting as a trans- 
mitting agent and general intermediary between the rector 
and the subordinate officers of the public school system in 
all official communications. The academy inspector really 
occupies one of the most important positions in the educa- 
tional field. He reflects the policy of the rector and so of 
the central authority on the one hand, and yet in the exer- 
cise of his inspectorate duties he comes into personal contact 
with the rank and file of the teaching body, and is likewise 
in position to feel the popular pulse. It must be recog- 
nized that by spirit and training he is far more competent to 
deal with and improve the work of the secondary schools 
than to act as director of the primary schools, and it would 
seem as though the prevailing practice of choosing these in- 
spectors from the teaching force of the lyc^es would not be 
for the best interests of the elementary schools. 

Such is the administrative organization of the French 
secondary school system, essentially bureaucratic, and 
excessively centralized. Inasmuch as the j^, ,. ^ , 
Paris schools are taken as the standard, this French 
centralization has been of immense assistance Organization. 
to the provincial schools, and it is certainly true that the 
extreme variation in the character of these French schools 
is far less than it is in the United States. To be sure there 
is more homogeneity among the French people than there is 
with us, and the degree of centralization that prevails there 
would be absolutely impossible on this side of the ocean, 
nevertheless it is perfectly patent that a wise amount of 
centralization, if it only established a uniform standard of 
teaching qualifications, would go far toward raising the 
general level of our secondary institutions. In France 
there is one standard for the same grade of teacher all over 
the country, the qualifications for the inspectors are every- 
where the same, and these two things are significant forces 
in bringing about a uniform excellence of schools. It must 
be admitted, however, that this centralization has been 
carried to an extreme. Too little is left to the discretion of 



102 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the head master and prmcipals, for even the slightest details 
are regulated from Paris. The ideal would seem to lie 
somewhere between the excessive centralization of the 
French and the extreme decentralization of the American 
school system. 



CHAPTEE VI 

THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE TEACHING FOECE 
OF THE SCHOOLS 

Shortly after the Eevolution, the French national gov- 
ernment assumed the responsibility not only of directing, 
but also of supporting institutions of secondary 
learning. It naturally established these in schools. 
the larger centres of population. The more 
progressive of the smaller communities that were not able 
to secure a government school were encouraged to found 
similar but less pretentious schools at their own expense. 
The public secondary schools thus fall into two general 
categories, the lyc^es and the colleges. The former are 
state schools pure and simple, being established, directed, 
inspected, and financed by the central government or its 
accredited representatives. " The establishments of the 
same nature, founded and supported by the communes, 
under the surveillance and direction of the State " ^ are 
called colleges. In this latter case, practically all the 
expense falls upon the community, save for the assistance 
that may be given by the department, and the subsidies 
granted by the central government. The national budget of 
1908 carried an aggregate appropriation of upwards of seven 
millions of francs for that purpose.^ In 1907, there were 
one hundred and ten boys' and forty-two girls' lyc^es, and 
two hundred and thirty-two boys' and fifty-three girls' col- 
leges.^ Every city that wants a lyc^e must provide the site, 

1 Decret, Feb. 25, 1860, Art. 1, Eecueil des Ehglements relatifs (t, Venscigne- 
tntnt secondaire, p. 27. 

2 Budget gineral de Vexercice, 1908. I''* section, p. 299 et seq. 
* Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907. 



104 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the building and the equipment, and assure the continuance 
of the funds necessary to their support. The State, however, 
looks out for the other running expenses. In order to 
establish a college, the community must do all this, and 
in addition must guarantee the salaries of the principal and 
the teaching force for at least ten years. In consideration of 
this agreement the State will often advance the money for 
construction purposes. Although these two classes of 
schools are nominally of equal rank, in practice the lyc^e 
is distinctly of a superior type. But there are exceptions 
to every rule and much depends upon the individual 
institution. For example, the two municipal colleges 
maintained by the city of Paris are probably far ahead of 
most of the provincial lyc^es, and in some respects they 
surpass even the lyc^es of the capital. In regard to the 
course of study and the method of the appointment of 
teachers, the colleges are subject to exactly the same 
restrictions as are the lyc^es. 

Each institution has its own board of government ^ with 
the rector, the academy inspector, the prefect or the sub- 
prefect, the mayor and the head of the school 

Board of /»» • ■, j 9 j.i 

Government. ^^ ex ojjicio members, and seven -^ other mem- 
bers, one of whom must be a professor in the 
lyc^e, appointed by the Minister for a term of four years. 
(In the case of a college, these appointive members are 
four in number.) The rector is the president ex officio of 
every board of government whether in a lyc^e or a college 
of his academy, but the academy inspector ordinarily has to 
take his place. The powers and duties of these boards are 
confined exclusively to the externa of the school affairs, 
questions of curriculum, interior discipline, and the person- 
nel being specifically excluded from their deliberations. 
They inspect and direct the material administration of the 

1 Dicret, Jan. 20, 1886, Arts. 1-13, RccuciJ cit., pp. 29-35. 

2 The addition of a teacher in the school as a seventh member of the gov- 
erning board was made in November, 1908. See decrct, Nov. 25, 1908, Bull, 
adm., 1908, II., p. 928. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 105 

schools, satisfy themselves by the personal visitation of 
their own delegates once a month that the hygienic condi- 
tion and the nourishment furnished the pupils are up to the 
standard, and have general oversight of the installation and 
equipment of the buildings. They audit the accounts of the 
bursar, examine the budget proposed by the head of the 
school, and pass upon its provisions before transmitting it 
to the rector. The extreme centralization of the school 
system is again forcibly illustrated by the fact that the 
deliberations of the boards of administration of the com- 
munal colleges are effective only after they have been ap- 
proved by the Minister on the recommendation of the rector. 
To Americans this would seem an unwarranted interference 
on the part of the central government, but it is mainly a 
precautionary measure, and serves to safeguard the standard 
and the efficiency of the communal colleges. 

In each lycde there are three general administrative offi- 
cers, the proviseur, or head master, who is responsible for the 
proper functioning of the school in all its de- 

T^l XT A 

partments; the censeur, or censor, a kind of Master. 
sub-master who is in charge of the discipline of 
the pupils both in and out of the classrooms ; and the econome, 
or bursar, a kind of combination chief steward, treasurer, and 
general financial agent of the institution. Since the reform 
legislation of 1902, all the new head masters have been 
agrSges,^ save for a few promoted from among the censors, 
who, having reached their positions while a lower standard 
of academic qualifications prevailed, were assumed to have 
acquired a sort of vested right to advancement without 
being held to conform to the additional requirements. 
Unfortunately the head master is merely an administrative 
officer with little real power of his own. Most of his time 
is taken up with an enormous number of details, with fur- 
nishing information to his superiors, with examining the 
reports from all the pupils in the school which the censor 

1 Becret, May 31, 1902, Art. 2, WissEMANS, Code de V enseignement secon- 
daire, p. 164. 



106 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

submits to him every morning, and with receiving visits 
from the parents. One of the parliamentary critics in 1899 
declared that the head master was " a chief that had neither 
stability of tenure in any given lyc^e, nor powers, nor ini- 
tiative ; that he had only the semblance of authority ; that 
whereas he ought to be everything in the lycde, he was al- 
most nothing." ^ M. Eibot, the chairman of the commission, 
dubbed him an official who " passed all his time like a Min- 
ister, in granting audiences." ^ The head master of one of 
the big Paris lyc^es thus characterized some of his own 
difficulties : " I see my professors and tutors as often as I 
can, but if I should devote one minute a day to each one, 
it would take me three consecutive hours. ... I receive the 
families, for it is one of the exigencies of the lyc^e. There 
are about thirty thousand visits a year. I receive from half 
past eight in the morning until noon, . and from two until 
six." 2 Small wonder is it then that the head master when 
once he is promoted from the professorate practically cuts 
himself off from direct contact with the real educational 
work of his school. He is relieved from all class teaching, 
and, by tradition and force of circumstances, he is essen- 
tially an administrative director rather than an educational 
leader. For this very reason some of the best of the pro- 
fessors refuse promotion to the head mastership, for the 
advancement seems to them more apparent than real. As 
a matter of fact, save for the occasions when he goes to the 
various class rooms to read the standing of the pupils or 
to announce the quarterly marks, the head master's visits 
to his classes are almost as rare as the inspector's, and so 
far as I was able to find out his directing of the work of 
the school is all done at long range, so to speak. This is 
undoubtedly the best solution possible, for it is rather rare 
to find the professors looking up to their head master as their 
intellectual superior. As more than one of them said to me, 

1 Raibeuti, Jiigime deslycies, p. 55, in Enqidte, VI. 
* RiBOT, £)iquete Introduction gin&rale, VI., p. 10. 
8 Yov\n:¥.xv,i-a.EnqiiJite, I., p. 565. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 107 

" As far as academic distinctions are concerned, many of the 
head masters are not our equals, nor even do they represent 
the best of the professors. I do not know that my own pro- 
viseur is competent to criticize my work." There is even 
more justification for this feeling on the part of the science 
teachers when the head master happens to be a classicist, as 
is usually the case. The head masters hold the regular 
teachers' meetings required by the regulations, but it is the 
exception rather than the rule to find, as I found at Lille, 
one who gathered once in three months the teachers in 
every department or group of allied subjects to discuss 
pedagogical questions of vital importance. The head master 
there was keen enough to appreciate his own shortcomings 
and took pains previously to inform himself thoroughly on 
all points that were likely to come up at a given session. 
Thus although himself a former classical teacher he was 
able to take intelligent part in discussions affecting the 
progress of the science divisions. In the main, then, all 
the expert inspection in the secondary schools is turned over 
to the academy inspectors, and the real educational progress 
of the institution depends upon the teachers rather than 
upon the head master. 

Although the censor ranks next to the head master and 
discharges his duties in case of temporary incapacity, he is a 
sub-master with certain very special functions. 
He looks after the resident pupils when they 
go to bed and when they rise ; he looks after them at their 
meals ; he supervises their recreations, both within and with- 
out the lyc^e ; he is the immediate superior of the study room 
masters ; he is always in the courtyard at the opening of the 
sessions, and the laggards have to seek cards from him before 
going to their class rooms. In a word he is a regular disci- 
pline master. Furthermore he is a general medium of com- 
munication between the head master and the school. The 
marks are turned in to him every night, and he reports to 
the head of the school in the morning on the general condi- 
tion of the lyc^e, transmitting to him the record of each boy 



108 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

as it came in for the previous day. The post of censor 
at Paris is generally considered more desirable than that of 
head master in the provincial towns, and not a few of the 
censors at the capital have come up in this fashion. 

The department of the bursar, econome, is quite distinct 
from the teaching force of the school. The bursar receives 
the fees, provides the food and supplies, arranges 
the menus, and acts as a general financial agent. 
He is also a veritable superintendent of buildings and grounds, 
and so has charge of all the domestics on the premises. In 
one of the less important lycees of Paris, the bursar has no 
fewer than forty servants under his control. So in addition 
to being a good accountant, he must also possess considerable 
executive ability. The bursarship thus constitutes a career 
in itself. The regular progress of advancement begins with 
the tutor, and passes thence through the grades of book- 
keeper and assistant bursar. 

The teaching force proper of the lycees includes : ^ 

(1) The professors and the acting professors in charge of the 
classes ; these are the teachers down through the sixth form ; 

(2) the professors of the elementary classes, the teachers of the 
seventh and eighth forms ; 

(3) the primary teachers, in the two years of the preparatory 
division and the beginning class (dasse enfantine) ; 

(4) the professors and acting professors of drawing ; 

(5) the professors of gymnastics ; and 

(6) the laboratory assistants. 

No one may be appointed a regular professor unless he is 

twenty-five years old, has been five years in the educational 

service of the State, and holds the title of aqrcqL 

Teachers 

The acting professors in charge of classes re- 
ceive their appointments only when there is a lack of agrcgcs 
for the positions in question. They are required to hold only 
the master's degree in letters or science, or one of the certifi- 

1 GoBRON, Legislation et jurisprudence dc V enscignemcnt public et de Vcn- 
seignement priv6 en France et en Algerie, ed. 1900, p. 510. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 109 

cates for teaching modern languages, and academically, at 
least, form a class distinctly inferior to the agreges. Most 
of them at first look forward to the agregation and a regular 
professorship, but after several faihires to pass the competi- 
tive examination they apparently accept the inevitable, and 
settle down. Their salary is five hundred francs less than 
that of an agrege doing exactly similar work, and it is not 
so easy for them to gravitate toward Paris, the Mecca of 
most French teachers. The professors of the elementary 
classes in the lyc^es must hold the master's degree or a 
special certificate for teaching in these elementary classes. 
The men and women primary teachers are taken from the 
members of the teaching force of the primary system that 
hold the highest grade certificates in that system. They re- 
ceive the same salary and continue to hold the same rights 
and privileges as though they were still attached to a regular 
primary school. The possession of the certificate for teach- 
ing English or German enables them to add three hundred 
francs per year to their salaries. Professors and acting pro- 
fessors of drawing must hold respectively the higher and the 
elementary certificate for teaching that subject. The labora- 
tory assistants (preparateurs) for the science work must hold 
the master's degree in science. The French title is much 
more descriptive of the character of the duties of these men 
than is the English equivalent, for they are real " preparers " 
for the laboratory work. The French laboratory is quite 
bereft of all movable equipment, the Bunsen burner being 
about the only exception to this statement. Consequently, 
the apparatus and supplies for every laboratory period have 
to be assembled in the general laboratory and brought in 
to the student tables. Besides this, the preparateur per- 
forms the duties of an ordinary laboratory assistant during 
the class period. In one of the lyc^es of Paris, which is 
especially devoted to scientific instruction, there are no 
fewer than four of these assistants, and they are all kept 
busy. 

The regular professors are the backbone of the French 



110 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

secondary system. Notwithstanding all the criticism to 

which the schools have been subjected, hardly a voice has 

been raised against the teachers. They are as fine a body 

^ , of men as one is likely to find, and from the 

x^roiGssors 

standpoint of academic qualifications, at least, 
are not to be surpassed. Certainly our American teachers are 
not serious rivals. One reason for this, perhaps, is that in 
France teaching is a profession; it is never the stepping 
stone to business or to another profession. A man takes it 
up seriously as a life work. The preparation is long, and the 
competition strenuous, so that once he has put his hand to 
the plow, he cannot afford to turn back. Many fall by the 
wayside, but once the goal is attained, the honor is large, 
the tenure is secure, and a retiring pension is assured. 
With us in America, we may fairly say that the tenure is 
reasonably secure, but for the very great majority of our 
secondary teachers the honor and the pension are still to 
be attained. From our own point of view, the French 
secondary teacher is lacking in personal sympathy with 
his pupils, or at least from the manifestation of it. He 
meets them only in the class room, and although the French 
educational writers are constantly contrasting education and 
instruction and are continually emphasizing the former, as 
far as my own observation goes, the French teacher devotes 
himself almost exclusively to developing the intellect of his 
pupils. It must be admitted that he succeeds in this task. 
In the lecture room he throws himself heart and soul into 
his class work, but outside he jealously guards his time as 
his own, and usually devotes it to his professional advance- 
ment. This, together with the very exclusive character of 
the French family life, explains why it is so rare that the 
professors can be induced to take secondary pupils into 
their homes. Thus they never come into the same personal 
contact with their pupils that we find in the great English 
public schools and at the corresponding American schools, 
such as Andover, Exeter, and Lawi-enceville. Indeed, such 
relations would be beneath the dignity of the French pro- 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 111 

fessor. This forces the employment of tutors and surveil- 
lants in the schools. 

There is a carefully arranged schedule of maximum work 
hours of service for each class of professors.^ In the depart- 
ment of the Seine and at Versailles the teachers of higher 
mathematics are liable for ten hours ; the other mathematics 
teachers and the upper form teachers, from twelve to four- 
teen hours ; the modern language teachers and the teachers 
of other than science subjects from the second through the 
sixth form, fifteen hours ; and the elementary teachers, nine- 
teen hours. The acting professors under fifty years of age 
are required to teach one hour more than the regular pro- 
fessors doing the same work. Furthermore, every one must 
hold himself ready to give two hours additional, but for this 
he receives extra remuneration. This supplement is always 
required from the higher mathematics teachers, and usually 
from the others. In the provincial lycdes, the same general 
conditions prevail save that the maximum weekly service 
runs one or two hours higher. In Paris, particularly, where 
the living expenses are heavy, the professors are often glad 
of the opportunity to put in even extra supplementary hours. 
This works to the mutual advantage of the Ministry and 
the individual, for it saves the appointment of additional 
teachers, and enables the strong and vigorous men to add 
appreciably to their incomes. 

The surveillance of the pupils and the supervision of the 
study periods are quite divorced from the class work. The 
general surveillant is an assistant to the censor, 

J T I,- c 1, £ j-u J , Surveillance. '^ 

and relieves him oi much or the yard super- ,' ■ 
vision. The bulk of the surveillance duties falls to the lot 
of the tutors (repetiteurs). These are of two orders, the pro- 
bationers and the regulars. The probationers are appointed 
by the rector for a period of three months. At the end of 
that time, if their work has been satisfactory, they receive a 
regular appointment from the Minister. These tutors with 
regular appointments fall into two grades ; those that come 

1 Arreti, Aug. 25, 1902, Wissemans, op. cit., p. 97. 



112 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

up in the way just described and hold the master's degree, 
and those that have been promoted from similar positions in 
the colleges and that hold only the bachelor's degree. We 
have nothing in our school system that is at all comparable 
to the work of these men. It is mainly supervision of study 
periods, although there is a little hearing of lessons, and a 
good deal of police duty. The tutors are responsible for the 
conduct of the boys and the maintenance of good discipline 
from ten o'clock in the morning until dinner time. There is 
a tutor in every study room (salle d'etudes). He supervises 
the study period, directs the work of the pupils, sees that 
they do their tasks neatly, that their lessons are properly 
prepared, and he transmits regularly to the censor and to 
their professors, marks on their study room work. He may 
even be assigned to give outside instruction to individual 
pupils under the direction of the regular teacher. The tutor 
certainly occupies an unenviable place. Every one probably 
entered his present position with the hope of making it a 
stepping stone to something higher, eventually of reaching a 
professorship, but nearly all of them have been doomed to 
disappointment. As one of them said to me : " Here I am 
in Paris within two hundred yards of the university, and my 
time is so taken up at the lycde that I have no leisure to 
attend lectures or even to advance my scholarship." And 
this was a young man only slightly over thirty years of age. 
One of the reports of the Parliamentary Commission con- 
tinues the story : " Out of 1,574 tutors in the lyc^es, 238 
have less than five years of service ; 475 have from five to 
ten years ; 764 from ten to twenty years ; 97 have more 
than twenty years. Out of the same number, 531 are 
between twenty and thirty years of age ; 973 between thirty 
and forty; 109 between forty and fifty; and 111 between 
fifty and sixty. In other words, nearly two thirds of the 
tutors are already passed thirty years of age, and almost half 
of them have spent more than ten years in the ser^dce. Out 
of 1,574 tutors in the lyc^es and 745 in the colleges, 2,319 in 
all, only 90 left during the year 1898-1899 either tlirough 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 113 

promotion or resignation or retirement. . . . They are either 
too young or too old ; if yomig, they are thinking only of 
their examinations ; if old, they have become embittered and 
discouraged." ^ 

Below the tutors are the ordinary surveillants, commonly 
known as the dormitory surveillants. These are chiefly 
young men that already possess the bachelor's 
degree and are carrying on their studies Surveillants 
in the higher faculties. They are not even 
classed in the regular force, but are selected and dismissed 
at the will of the head master. The position is a good 
one for a student, for since he is ordinarily on duty only 
from seven o'clock at night until eight o'clock in the 
morning, he is able to support himself while he is study- 
ing and yet have a good working day at his own disposal. 
He sleeps in the dormitory where he can keep an eye 
on the boys, although he has a section that is at least 
curtained off from the rest of the room, and he is re- 
sponsible for seeing that everything goes well during the 
night. He likewise has charge of the boys during the first 
study period of the day, which comes before breakfast. In the 
university centres the recruitment of these dormitory surveil- 
lants is a simple matter, for the large numbers of students 
in the various faculties furnish the head masters with a 
supply of available young men far in excess of any pos- 
sible demand. Outside the university towns, however, the 
situation often presents considerable difficulty. There de- 
pendence has to be placed upon young men sometimes 
just fresh from the lyc^es themselves, who are able to 
prepare for some higher examination without following 
any regular lectures, together with occasional assistance 
obtained from the younger unmarried tutors. In many 
cases the dormitory surveillant is so youthful as to be in 
almost as much need of supervision as the boys over 
whom he is appointed. He is thus but little more than 
a monitor. In one school that I visited, the dormitories 

1 Raiberti, Rigime des lycie, pp. 96-98, in Enqu^e, VI. 



114 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

were locked for the night, and ordinary egress was im- 
possible for the surveillant as well as for the boys. A 
key was enclosed in a glass wall box beside each exit 
for use only in emergency cases. The whole arrangement 
is a decidedly questionable contrivance, but it serves to 
indicate the measure of authority these surveillants enjoy 
as well as the amount of confidence reposed in them. 

It is amazing to us to see how many persons it requires 

to run a French lyc^e. In one of the Paris schools which 

has about 950 pupils enrolled, divided as 

Required. foUows : boarding pupils 100; half boarders 
250, that is, pupils that remain at the school 
from the opening in the morning until seven o'clock at 
night — these have the midday meal and a light luncheon 
in the middle of the afternoon at the school, and have the 
study room privileges of the boarding pupils; day pupils 
that study at the school under supervision 80 ; and or- 
dinary day pupils 520 ; there are ninety-nine different 
persons in the administrative, teaching, and surveillance 
departments. This includes the bursar and his two assist- 
ants, but takes no account of the attendants under his 
direction, nor of the dormitory surveillants. It is safe to 
count on at least fifty domestics in this school. Of course, 
some of these are required exclusively on account of the 
boarding pupils and the half boarders, but when all 
allowances have been made the number seems rather 
formidable. 

From the head down, the standard of qualification of 
the personnel of the colleges in the main is distinctly 
inferior to that of the lyc^es, although the 
ti^rcoUeges colleges are held to the same general pro- 
gi-am and are expected to do the same 
work. The reorganization of the secondary school system, 
in 1902, raised the minimum qualifications for these col- 
lege positions somewhat. Henceforth the new principals 
will be required to hold the master's degree or else to 
have been a regular professor in a college or an acting 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 115 

professor in a lycde.^ In the municipal colleges, the 
duties of the censor, where there is occasion for such an 
official, are almost invariably discharged by a general sur- 
veillant. In many of the smaller schools one or more of 
the professors are designated to perform such functions. 
The professors of the colleges are divided into three orders. 
The first includes the agreges, those that hold the master's 
degi'ee, one of the special certificates for teaching in secondary 
schools or the diploma of the old Cluny normal school ; the 
second the holders of the simple bachelor's degree ; the third, 
the holders of the higher diploma ( brevet superieur ) and the 
certificate of teaching ability (certijlcat d' aptitude pedago- 
gique ). ^ As in the lycdes the tutors are divided into two 
groups, the probationers and the regulars. The former, 
simple bachelors, are appointed by the rector for a year's 
trial, and then if satisfactory they receive a ministerial 
appointment. Holders of the master's degree are relieved 
from this period of probation.^ 

The decree of December 28, 1903, * went a long way 
toward simplifying the very complex division into classes 
of the various grades of functionaries in the classes of 
secondary school system. Save for a few of Teachers and 
the tutors and a small group of professors Promotion. 
agreges, all the functionaries of every order in the boys' 
and girls' lycdes and colleges are uniformly divided into 
six classes. Every new appointee begins in the lowest 
class of his order. At least two years of service are re- 
quired in the sixth class before the individual is eligible 
for promotion to the fifth; in the fifth class the minimum 
service is three years ; in the fourth class, four years ; and 
in the third and second classes , five years each. These 
minima are reduced one year in each case for the func- 
tionaries of the lyc^es of Paris and Versailles, for the 

1 Dicret, May 31, 1902, Art. 2, Wissemans, op. ciL, p. 164. 

2 Becret, June 27, 1892, Arts. 1-2, ibid., p. 93. 

3 Decret, Aug, 28, 1891, Arts. 10-11, ibid., pp. 83-84. 
* Wissemans, op, ciL, pp. 189-190, 



116 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

censors and the bursars of the lyc^es, and for the princi- 
pals of the colleges, and for the directresses and bursars 
of the girls' lyc^es. There are furthermore some minor 
modifications on account of age. For the classes below 
the second, promotions are made, one half by reason of 
length of service, and one half from choice; for the sec- 
ond and the first classes, one third on the basis of ser- 
vice, and two thirds on choice.^ 

The table on page 117 based upon decrees of 1903 and 1905 
shows the salary schedule for the staff of the boys' lycees 
and colleges. 

The head masters of the lycees are classed as regular pro- 
fessors, and they are promoted under the same conditions. 
For their work as directors they receive from 2,000 to 4,000 
francs per year extra, but the average of all such salaries 
must not exceed 3,000 francs.^ Under this schedule, the 
maximum salary for the head masters is 12,500 francs in 
Paris and 10,500 francs in the departments. Furthermore, 
the head master is given an apartment in the lyc^e and has 
a certain annual allowance of wood and oil. The censors, 
bursars, and general surveillants likewise have their lodgings 
at the schools and smaller allowances of the same nature for 
heating and lighting. In the case of the head master these 
amount to thirteen steres of wood and seventy -five kilogi-ams 
of oil per annuin. In Paris and Versailles the censors are 
classed together at a salary of 8,000 francs, aside from the 
500 francs bonus for the agrcgation. The bursars in the 
same lycees are likewise grouped together and receive 8,000 
or 7,000 francs, according as the school has boarders or 
only day pupils.^ All the bursars receive an additional per- 

1 Dicret, July 20, 1889, Art. 1, Wissemans, op. cit., p.66. 

A recent law has still further modified the scheme of promotion. Accord- 
ing to the terms of tliis law, fifteen per cent of the teaching and administrative 
staft' who have comjjleted the minimum service in their class may he selected 
for advancement from choice. Tliis promotion comes as a right to all the others 
after they have spent two years more than the prescribed minimum period 
in any particular class. Loi, April 7, 1908, Bidl. adm., 1908, I., pp. 549-550, 

2 Ddcrct, May 31, 1902, Art. 3, Wissemans, op. cit., p. 164. 

3 Dem-d, July 16, 1887, Art. 2, ibid., p. 61. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 



111 



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118 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

centage of one tenth of one per cent wherever the actual 
receipts of the lycee exceed 200,000 francs. In noting the 
very small amounts paid the tutors in the colleges, it must 
be borne in mind that these men have their board and 
lodging at the school. The value of this is officially reck- 
oned at 1,000 francs per year. By reason of the generosity 
of the municipal councils of Lyon and Marseille, the salaries 
of the lycee staffs of these two cities range from one hundred 
to seven hundred francs per year higher than in the other 
provincial lyc^es.^ 

In every case the salary is attached to the class and does 
not bear any relation to the school per se. Thus a teacher 
may be transferred from a small lycee in the south to a 
large lycee in the extreme north or vice versa, yet his salary 
will not necessarily be affected in the least. If he is brought 
to Paris, however, he falls into another category and benefits 
considerably thereby. It requires only a glance at the fore- 
going schedule to see how desirable the Paris appointments 
are. The salary of the regular professors of even the sixth 
class at Paris, including, of course, their agregation bonus, is 
equal to that of a principal of a provincial college of the 
first class. All of these salaries seem remarkably low from 
our point of view. After making due allowance for the 
rent, 12,500 francs, the very highest salary of the head mas- 
ter of a Paris lyc^e, does not compare at all favorably with 
the salaries of the principals of the high schools in New 
York and our other large cities.^ Eemember, too, that the 
French head master, even under the most fortunate combina- 
tion of circumstances possible, cannot reach his maximum 

1 D^cret, May 8, 1904, "Wissemans, op. ciL, pp. 196-197. 

2 Comparing the figures with the salaiy schedules for Germany, given in 
Russell, German higher schools, Appendix F, we find that Paris head mas- 
ters begin at a salary exactly equivalent to that of the Berlin principals. In 
Paris the promotion is rather more rapid, and the maximum salary is consid- 
erably higher. For the most part the provincial principals in Germany are 
rather better off than the corresponding masters in France. Among the regu- 
lar teachers, however, the advantage is all with the French, save that after 
twenty-one years of service, the German country teacher is slightly to the 
good. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 119 

before he is forty-four years of age. In practice lie is well 
over fifty before he receives this salary, and if he did not 
gain the agregation in his youth, even this will always be 
beyond his reach. 

Eor more than half a century the French government has 
had a national pension law^ applicable to all officials paid 
from the public treasury. The basis of the t, . 

. • 1 T 1 1 • rensions. 

pension fund is provided partly by laymg a tax 
of the twelfth part of the first year's salary as well as a like 
portion of each subsequent increase, but chiefly from the pro- 
ceeds of a five per cent tax on all regular salaries. The 
teachers' deductions in pay on account of absence or punish- 
ments likewise help swell this fund. The major part of the 
primary school teachers are classed in the active division 
which makes them eligible for a pension when they have 
reached the age of fifty-five and after twenty-five years of 
service ; while the secondary and university teachers fall 
into the passive division and become eligible at sixty years 
of age and after thirty years of service. The time spent at 
the higher normal schools after the age of twenty is included 
in this service period. In the passive class the pension is 
reckoned at one sixtieth for each year of service, calculated 
on the average salary of the last six years as a basis. This 
gives the secondary teacher an ordinary retiring pension of 
one half this average sum, but in no case may it amount to 
more than two thirds of this figure nor exceed six thousand 
francs. Special regulations apply to cases where the indi- 
vidual is seriously injured or dies in the performance of his 
duty. In this latter event, the widow's pension is two thirds 
of what her husband's would have been. Under normal 
circumstances, a widow must have been married six years 
before her husband's retirement in order to draw a pension. 
It is then one third of what her husband received. Orphan 
children divide the mother's share until they reach the age 
of twenty-one. The widow's or orphan's pension is never 
less than one hundred francs per year. 

1 Loi, June 9, 1853, Wissemans, op. ciL, pp. 10-18. 



120 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Every member of the secondary teaching force is exempt 
from all matriculation charges in the faculties or other 
state higher institutions of learning, as well 
as from all library, examination, certificate^ 
and diploma fees for the master's degree. The children 
and wards of the functionaries of the secondary system re- 
ceive free tuition as day pupils or as day pupils studying 
under supervision at the boys' and girls' lyc^es, and at the 
boys' colleges. Through some oversight the same privileges 
do not apply to girls' colleges and secondary courses (cours 
secondaires), but inasmuch as the primary officials have free 
tuition privileges in all these various categories of schools, 
similar favors will probably be made general for the second- 
ary teachers and administrative officers. The value of all 
such exemptions in the budget of 1908 amounts to more 
than a million and three quarters of francs,^ nearly one third 
being on the account of the officers and teachers of the 
secondary school system, and the remainder on the account 
of those in the primary school system. 

Like so many other questions in the school administra- 
tion, the system of punishments to which officials may be 
subject is wonderfully complex but at the same 
time wonderfully explicit. There seems to be 
no doubt as to what may be done and xmder what author- 
ity. The regular teachers of both lyc^es and colleges are 
guaranteed the same protection that is accorded mem- 
bers of the faculties, and the punishments inflicted are 
comparatively rare. Disciplinary processes fall into three 
general categories, depending upon the authority that has 
the power to inflict them. 

(1) The Minister may pronounce a reprimand before the 
academic council or before the superior council, neither of these 
being subject to appeal ; or he may suspend the professor -witliout 
loss of salary for a period not exceeding one year. 

(2) The Minister with the sanction of the permanent sec- 

1 Budget g&niral,de I' excrcice. 1908, sec. 1, p. 313. 



ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING FORCE 121 

tion of the superior council may transfer a professor to a lower 
position. 

(3) The punishments that may be inflicted by the academic 
council are all subject to appeal to the superior council. They 
are of four sorts : suspension with partial or total loss of salary, 
removal, revocation, and permanent disbarment.-^ 

The disciplinary regulations to which the tutors are sub- 
jected are quite distinct from the foregoing. They are no 
fewer than nine in number, varying from the simple " warn- 
ing" of the academy inspector to permanent disbarment 
from teaching pronounced by the academic council, subject 
to the ordinary conditions of appeal to the superior council. 

Besides the perquisites above referred to, there are liter- 
ally thousands of distinctions awarded every year to the 
officers and teachers of the educational sys- 
tem. The French people seem almost to have 
a mania for decorations, for these range from membership 
in the Institute down to the bronze medal awarded for suc- 
cess in securing revaccinations among primary school chil- 
dren. The origin of the ordinary honorable distinctions 
dates from Napoleon's foundation of the University just a 
hundred years ago. There are two to which the staff of the 
secondary system is ordinarily eligible : officer of the acad- 
emy; and officer of public instruction. These distinctions, 
however, are confined neither to the secondary schools, nor 
even to the officials of the educational system. They serve 
two general purposes : in the first place to offer public recog- 
nition to teachers and members of learned societies for work 
really meriting such recognition ; and in the second place to 
provide a means of extending the popularity of the govern- 
ment. Members of the secondary system must be proposed 
by the rector on recommendation of the academy inspector. 
In general one must have been officer of the academy for 
five years before being named officer of public instruction. 
The value of these distinctions necessarily decreases with 

1 Lot, Feb. 27, 1880, Gobron, Legislation de Venseignement, pp. 529-530. 



122 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

their numbers. In the Paris lycee already referred to, of 
the ninety-nine persons in the administrative, teaching, and 
surveillance departments, seventy-five of them are either 
officers of the academy, or officers of public instruction, and 
fourteen of the remainder are merely tutors. It goes with- 
out saying that this proportion is likely to be larger in the 
Paris schools, but in a small lycde in the extreme south 
selected at random, aside from the tutors, exactly three 
quarters of the staff belong to one of these two orders. 

When the accounts have been cast, it must be admitted 
that the lot of the Prench regular secondary teacher is far 
from unsatisfactory. While apparently his salary is poor 
compared with many of those paid in America, relatively he 
is much better paid. He has labored hard to reach his 
position, but he has a government appointment which carries 
respect with it. His tenure is secure, promotion is slow but 
reasonably certain, and at retirement his pension is assured. 
Furthermore, he is able to live in the community comfort- 
ably on an equality with those of his neighbors whose tastes 
are similar to his own. 



CHAPTEE VII 

THE PROGRAM 

Even to the casual observer of the trend of educational 
thought in France during the last two decades, the struggle 
that has been going on in the field of secon- 
dary education has been plainly evident. The ^^^^ classics. 
marked evolution in the ideas concerning sec- 
ondary education has followed closely upon the evolution in 
the economic and social world. It has been the strife 
between utilitarianism and mere culture, between realism 
and humanism. It has been the effort to force the second- 
ary school to set aside its former unique function of pre- 
paring for the university, and to assume the added responsi- 
bility of fitting for real life. All through the Middle Ages 
Latin was the very foundation of liberal culture. At times 
Greek appeared to dispute this ascendency, but in the main 
the Latin held its own. Backed though it was by the 
forces of the Eevolution, it nevertheless quickly reassumed 
its old position as the dominant culture force. The ma- 
terialism of the nineteenth century again challenged its 
right of precedence, and this time a truce was arranged. 
Later, the program of 1890-91 bade fair to settle the 
strife, but this apparent solution was only temporary. The 
new " modern " instruction did not produce the anticipated 
results. Many of the families still looked upon it as in- 
ferior to the classical course, even for those pupils preparing 
for the great scientific schools. One thing that militated 
seriously against the success of the reform course was the 
fact that its baccalaureate did not share in the privileges of 
the old classical baccalaureate. This was rather surprising 



124 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

in the case of the medical school, for the letters course 
practically neglected the science subjects that play so large 
a part in the preparation of the physician. It is almost un- 
necessary to add that the science course was no more liber- 
ally inclined toward the philosophical subjects. Just at that 
point came the parliamentary investigation commission of 
M. Eibot, and that committee overhauled the whole question 
from cellar to garret. In fact it is rather difficult to find any 
question affecting secondary education that was not touched 
upon during the course of that inquiry .^ The conclusions 
alone enumerate no fewer than fifty-two separate points. 

Without attempting even to outline the discussions that 
took place there, suffice it to say that they led up directly to 
the fundamental reform program of 1902. Save for minor 
modifications this is the program in force to-day in the 
boys' lyc^es and colleges in France. It certainly marks the 
passing of the classics, not as an instrument of general culture, 
but as the sole medium by which that general culture could 
be attained. Germany has already struggled with the same 
problem and has solved it, at least temporarily. America 
has also wrestled with it, although we have not yet reached 
a position of equilibrium in the matter. England, too, has 
felt its influence, but the fact that secondary education as it 
used to be understood has been carried on there chiefly 
under private auspices caused it to present certain prob- 
lems that were not found in the other three countries. 

France has come out boldly and recognized, at least offi- 
cially, the exact parity between the scientific education and 
the classical education. "Scientific humanism has won the 
right of sitting side by side with literary humanism." ^ 
Mathematics, which up to that time had been merely a 
tool, is henceforth to be put upon an equality with letters 

1 Enqicite sur Venscigncment secondaire, 1899, six large quarto volumes, 
making in all three thousand pages in double column. Representatives from 
every branch of the service, from former ministers of public instruction to 
simple professors, were invited to present their views before the commission, 
and no detail was omitted. 

2 CouYBA, Eajpport du Budget g6niral, 1907, p. 73. 



THE PROGRAM 125 

as an instrument of culture. This is no disparagement of 
the classics, to which the French are under peculiar obli- 
gation for the development of their taste and 
artistic nature, but merely makes open con- between^ 
fession of the fact that science is also to be Classical and 
recognized as a means of culture, distinct, to be Education 
sure, but none the less effective. The former can 
no longer be treated as subordinate, under the rubric of " spe- 
cial " or " modern " education. The old degrees of bachelor of 
arts and bachelor of science have ceased to exist ; henceforth 
there is only one baccalaureate. Whatever mention of sub- 
jects appears on its face, the privileges it confers are 
identical. It goes without saying that if certain secondary 
courses are followed, certain advanced work cannot be 
midertaken. For instance, a student who has studied Latin 
but not Greek will be unable to come up for the master of 
arts degree, because that includes Greek. If he were will- 
ing to make up this Greek, however, there would be no other 
obstacle in his way, for the Latin and the other subjects in the 
classical course are practically identical with those in the 
Latin-modern language section or the Latin-science section. 
The official sanctions in civil life for all these sections 
are the same. Formerly the non-classical students were un- 
able to compete for certain careers. Now all are on 
the same basis. Furthermore they are now admitted alike 
to the professional schools. A student who passes his bacca- 
laureate without ever having studied a word of Latin is 
admitted to the law faculty or the medical faculty upon 
exactly the same footing as one who has devoted himself to 
Latin and Greek throughout his course. Neither has any ad- 
vantage to his credit nor any handicap to overcome. In 
either case he received a liberal education ; his professional 
education lies before him. 

The decree of the President of the Eepublic of May 31, 
1902, as prepared by the Superior Council of Public In- 
struction, runs as follows: 



126 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Article 1. Secondary instruction is co-ordinated with primary 
instruction so as to follow directly upon a normal four-year course 
of primary study .^ 

Art. 2. Secondary instruction is given in a course of study 
which extends over seven years and is divided into two cycles : 
one of four years, and one of three years. 



FIEST CYCLE 

Art. 3, In the first cycle, the pupils have a choice between 
two sections. 

In one section, aside from the subjects common to the two 
sections, Latin is obligatory from the first year (the sixth form), 
and Greek is optional beginning with the third year (the fourth 
form). 

In the other section, which includes neither Latin nor Greek, 
more emphasis is put upon the instruction in French, science, 
drawing, etc. 

Art. 4. In both sections the programs are arranged so that at 
the end of the first cycle the pupil is in possession of a certain 
fund of serviceable knowledge which is complete in itself. 

Art. 5. At the end of the first cycle, a certificate of secondary 
study of the first degree may be given to the pupils, on the basis 
of the marks they have had during the four years, and after the 
deliberation of the professors whose instruction they have followed. 

Candidates for the baccalaureate have the right to submit this 
certificate to the jury.^ It will be given the same weight as 
the report book in determining the candidate's standing at the 
written and at the oral examination. 

1 "This is not exactly true. At the last moment the Minister and the 
superior council of public instruction could not resign themselves to eliminat- 
ing the study of modern languages in the eighth and seventh forms of the 
secondary schools. Thus the sixth form follows directly after the seventh, 
but not after the course of the primary schools properly speaking." Annuaire ' 
de la jeunesse, 1907, p. 187. 

In order not to give the secondary pupils any undue advantage, the 
competitive examinations for scholarships in the lycees and colleges are based 
exclusively upon the subject matter of the primary school program. 

2 That is, the examination commission before which the bachelor's examina- 
tion is passed. 



THE PROGRAM 127 



SECOND CYCLE 

Art. 6. In the second cycle, four groups of courses are open to 
the pupil : 

1. Latin and Greek; 

2. Latin with more extensive study of modern languages ; 

3. Latin with more extensive study of science ; 

4. Modern languages and science, without Latin. 

This last section, though intended normally for those pupils 
that have not had Latin during the first cycle, is nevertheless 
open to those pupils who have studied Latin during the fii'st 
cycle, but do not car© to pursue it further. 

Art, 7. For those pupils who are not coming up for the bacca- 
laureate, a course of study will be arranged in certain schools at 
the end of the first cycle whose chief aim will be the study of 
modern languages and the study of science in its practical 
applications. This will be a two-year course, and will be adapted 
to the needs of the particular community. The programs will be 
arranged by the academic councils and promulgated by the 
Minister.^ 

At the completion of this course of study, and after a public 
examination on the subjects of instruction, a certificate may be 
granted which shall bear the name of the academy where the 
examination was passed, the subjects of the examination, and the 
marks obtained. 

The apparent effect of this decree was to separate con- 
clusively the real secondary course from the elementary or 

1 This last provision marks an important step, for it is a definite attempt 
to get away from the almost absolute uniformity that dominates the secondary 
school system. It must be noted, however, that this confers on the academic 
council nothing more than the privilege of suggestion. The Minister still 
retains the power in his own hands, for he may accept, modify, substitute 
for, or reject any or every part of the proposed program. 

" In the terms of a ministerial circular of July 19, 1902, these courses 
were to be organized in only a certain number of important lycees where there 
was a real need for them. Furthermore, these lycees must be able to offer 
both from the point of view of the material equipment and of the teaching 
force all the resources necessary for a successful organization. We do not 
believe that any such course has yet been organized." Annuaire de la 
jeunesse, 1907, p. 181, note. n, 



128 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

primary course. Ostensibly it superimposed the secondary 

course, which begins with the sixth form, upon the primary 

school course as well as upon the elementary 
Effect of this i • • •- ^ ^ t~, , ■ 

Reform. work given m its own lower classes. But m 

practice this end has not been attained, due 
partly, as has already been pointed out, to the question of 
modern language instruction, but chiefly to economic and 
social causes. The former difficulties might easily be 
avoided by a stroke of the pen, but the latter are more deep 
seated in their nature. 

The division into two cycles is likewise of great signifi- 
cance. It provides a stopping place about the middle of 
the course which enables a boy to catch his breath, so to 
speak. Furthermore, if for any reason he leaves school at 
the end of that first half, he takes away with him a definite 
miity of ideas. He need not feel that he has begun a piece 
of work and left it unfinished. He has met the classic 
authors of his own literature, he has studied from one to 
three foreign languages according to the course he has 
chosen, for at least four years, he has covered all the 
common arithmetic, he has completed the geography of the 
world, he has glanced at every period of the world's history 
from the very beginning down to 1889, and this has in- 
cluded brief sketches of all the countries of the civilized 
world in modern times ; in a word he has touched practically 
all the subjects of secondary school study. The course is so 
arranged that this point forms a natural break, whereas 
under the old conditions it was admittedly worked out on at 
least a seven-year basis. It had to be carried all the way 
through or else the time was to a considerable degree ill 
spent. The most obvious advantage of this break in the 
course was the opportunity it afforded for flexibility, for 
allowing a change of course without loss of time, and the 
superior council was keen enough* to appreciate this. 
Although other points will appear when we come to 
study the courses more in detail, this very flexibility is 
the most striking characteristic of the new progi-am. 



THE PROGRAM 129 

The program of 1902 with the modifications of 1905 
provides for a twelve-year course of study, one year in 
the infant class, two years in the preparatory division, and 
two years in the elementary division, followed by the seven 
years of the secondary course properly speaking.^ The 
program of the infant class does not form an essential part 
of the curriculum any more than that of the kindergarten in 
our own school system, but it is nevertheless work of real 
school character resembling so far as subject matter is 
concerned our old first grade instruction. 

Beginning with the preparatory division, the week hours 
per subject are arranged as follows : 



WEEKLY PROGRAM — REGULATIONS OF 1902-1905 
Preparatory Division 
I Year II Year 

HRS. HRS. 

French 9 French 7 

Moral and civic instruction ^ Moral and civic instruction ^ 

Writing 2^ Modern languages .... 2 

Simple history stories ... 1 Writing 2^ 

Geography 1^ Simple history stories ... 1 

Arithmetic 3 Geography IJ 

Nature study 1 Arithmetic 3 

Drawing 1 Nature study 1 

Singing 1 Drawing 1 

Singing 1 

Total 20 Total 20 

1 Arreies, May 31, 1902, July 27, 28, and Sept. 8, 1905, Plan d'etudes et 
programmes d'enseignement dans les lycees et colUges, Delalain Freres, 1907-8, 
pp. xxiii-xxvi. 

2 This instruction will be given in connection with the instruction in 
French, history, and geography, and is included in the time assigned to these 
subjects. 



130 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Elementary Division 
(Eighth and seventh forms) 

French 7 

Moral and civic instruction ' 

Modern languages 2 

Writing 1 

History and geography 3 

Arithmetic 4 

Nature study 1 

Drawing 1 

Singing 1 

Total 20 

FIRST CYCLE 

(Length, four years; from the sixth to the third form inclusive) 

Division A Division B 

Sixth Form 



French 3 

Latin 7 

Modern languages 5 

History and geography ... 3 

Arithmetic 2 

Natural science 1 

Drawing 2 



French 

Writing 

Modern languages . . 
History and geography 

Arithmetic 

Natural science . . . . 
Drawing 



Total 23 



Total 



22 



Fifth Form 



French 3 

Latin 7 

Modern languages 5 

History and geography ... 3 

Arithmetic 2 

Natural science 1 

Drawing 2 



French 

Writing 

Modern languages .... 
History and geography . . 
Mathematics and mechanical 

drawing 

Natural science 

Drawing 



HRS. 

5 
1 
5 
3 



Total 23 



Total 



22 



1 This instruction will be given in connection with the instruction in 
French, history and geography, and is included in the time assigned to these 
subjects. 

^ One hour for mechanical drawing. 



THE PROGRAM 



131 



Fourth Form 



HRS. 

Ethics 1 

French 3 

Latin 6 

Greek (optional) — 3 hrs. 

Modern languages 5 

History and geography ... 3 

Mathematics 2 

Natural science 1 

Drawing 2 



HRS. 

Ethics . 1 

French 5 

Modern languages .... 5 

History and geography . . 3 
Mathematics, book-keeping, 

and mechanical drawing . 5 

Physics and chemistry . . 2 

Drawing 2 



Total 



23 + 3 optional 



Total .... 23 



Third Form^ 



HRS. 

Ethics 1 

French 3 

Latin 6 

Greek (optional) — 3 hrs. 

Modern languages 5 

History and geography ... 3 

Mathematics 3 

Drawing 2 



Total 



23 + 3 optional 



HRS. 

Ethics 1 

French 4 

Civil government and com- 
mon law 1 

Modem languages .... 5 

History and geography . . 3 

Mathematics ^ 4 

Physics and chemistry . . 2 

Natural science 1 

Book-keeping 1 

i2^ 

Total 25 



' The pupils who elect Greek are relieved of three of the regular hours, two 
of modern languages and one of drawing. 

2 One optional hour of practical book-keeping in those schools where it is 
deemed advisable, the decision being made by the professors in general meeting. 

' One hour for mechanical drawing. 



132 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

SECOND CYCLE 

(Length, three years ; from the second to the philosophy form) 

Second Form 



French 

Latin 

Greek 

Modern history 

Ancient history 

Geography 

Modem languages 

Mathematics 

Physics and chemistry 

" " " laboratory . . . 

Drawing 

Geology (12 lectures of one hour, common 
to all the sections) 

Totals 



<! <a 



HRS. 

3 

4 
5 
2 
2 
1 



24 



o 2 cs 

^ S 3 
1-1 



HRS. 

3 

4 

2 

2 

1 

(2 

}v 

2^ 
1 



24 



Ofl 



5.S 



HRS. 

3 

4 



26 



o o a 

B C S 



HRS. 

3 



1 

2 
11 

'42 

5 
3 
2 
2 
2* 



27 



* In Sections B and D one hour of special work for the language studied in 
the first cycle. 

^ Four hours for the second language. 

3 Two classes of one hour per week during the first semester. 

* Two hours for mechanical drawing. 



THE PROGRAM 

First Form 



133 





Section A 
Latin-Greek 


Section B 

Latin-modern 

languages 


I5.S 
u 


E 

H c 9 
o 

m 


French 

Latin 

" extra hours . 

Greek 

Modern history 
Ancient history . 
Geography . . . 

Modern languages 

Mathematics ^ . . 

Physics 

Physics and chem- 
istry 

Physics and chem- 
istry laboratory 

Drawing .... 


HRS. 

3 
3 
2 
5 

2 
2 
1 

2 

14-2* 
1 

2* 


HRS. 
3 
3 
2* 

2 

2 

1 + 2* 
1 

2* 


HRS. 

3 
3 

2 
1 
2 
5 

3 

2 


HRS. 

3 

2 

1 
(2 

(42 
5 

3 

2 

1^. 


Totals . . . 


22 + 4 optional 


20 + 6 optional 


25 


27 



* Optional. 

> In Sections B and D one hour of special work for the language studied in 
the first cycle. 

2 Four hours for the second language. 

8 Sections A and B, two classes of one hour per week during the second 
semester, plus two hours optional throughout the year, 

* Two hours for mechanical drawing. 



134 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Philosophy and Mathematics Forms 





Philosophy 


Mathematics 




Section A 


Section B 


Section A 


Section B 


Philosophy 

Greek-Latin 

Latin 


HRS. 

8+ 
4* 


HRS. 

'2* 

\l 

3i 
2i 
3 
2 

2* 


HRS. 

3 

2 

3i 

8 

5 

2 

2 

24 + 2*5 


HRS. 

3 


Modern languages .... 

History and geography . . 

Mathematics^ 

Physics and chemistry . . 

Natural sciences 

Physics and chemistry, lab- 
oratory ^ 


2* 
3^ 

3 
2 


11' 

3i 
8 
5 
2 

2 


Drawing 

Hygiene (12 lectures of one 
hour each)" 


2* 


24+2*6 


Totals 


19^+8* 


22i + 4* 


27i + 2* 


28i + 2* 



The New 
Pioffram. 



Save for singing, the subjects of instruction in the infant 
class are exactly the same as those in the first year of the 
preparatory division. Boys enter here nor- 
mally at six years of age, though one some- 
times finds little fellows one or even two years 
younger. In all the lycees where an infant class is found, it 
is invariably taught by a woman. 

* Optional. 

1 The pupils have the right to select for themselves the distribution of 
these two hours. 

2 Mathematics, two hours ; cosmography, one hour during one semester. 

^ Five or six of these periods are reserved for experimental work in natural 
science. This laboratory work will likewise be required of the Philosophy 
pupils in both sections. 

* Two liours for mechanical drawing. 
'^ Freehand drawing is optional. 

6 These lectures are included in the natural science instruction for both sec- 
tions of the Mathematics Form, and for all four sections when the Philosophy 
and the Mathematics Forms have their science work in common. AVhen the 
Philosophy and Mathematics Forms are not taught together, the work in hy- 
giene is given outside the natural science instruction for the Philosophy Form. 



THE PROGRAM 135 

The same is often true of the first year of the preparatory 
division. It is exactly the same here as in the primary 
school system, men teachers for boys' schools 

1 ,1 p -ijiT T,i Infant Class. 

and women teachers tor girls schools. In the 
primary system there are some evidences of a slight weaken- 
ing of this old established notion, but the tradition shows no 
sign of breaking in the secondary schools. 

Modern language study begins in the second year of the 
preparatory division. Theoretically the pupil may choose 
from English, German, Italian, and Spanish, 
but practically this choice is narrowed to Eng- Modern 
lish or German, with the chances in favor of Language 
the latter. The instruction below the sixth form °' 

is usually given by the regular class teacher, and it is rather 
rare to find one of these men that can teach English, The 
fact that formerly German was required in the secondary 
schools even now tends to perpetuate that language, though 
of late years the English has been gaining relatively. Now- 
adays, in the Paris lyc^es, the pupil may begin either English 
or German in the ninth form, but in the provincial schools it 
is comparatively rare that he can make this choice thus early. 
This modern language work in these lower classes is not of 
very serious moment. The administration is not heartily in 
sympathy with it, for if it is rigorously taught it will inter- 
fere seriously with the plan of co-ordinating the sixth form 
with the work of the primary system, the lower schools of 
that system having no modern language instruction. At the 
time of the revision in 1902, this modern language work was 
left in these lower grades as a kind of concession to the parents, 
who perhaps disliked seeing the elementary classes of the col- 
leges and lyc^es too much like the classes of the free primary 
school system. Hence the modern language teacher in the 
sixth form is compelled to go back to the very beginning in 
his instruction. The poor grading of this class renders his 
task extremely difficult. 

One of the most important reforms in the new program 
was the increase in the amount of modern language instruc- 



136 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

tion in division A of the first cycle. In the old classical 
course, it amounted to ten hours for the four years, whereas 
it is now sixteen for those that elect Greek, and twenty for 
those that do not. The total hours of modern language in- 
struction for all Latin pupils has been increased from sixteen 
under the old program to from twenty-two to thirty-seven, 
according to the course or combination of courses pursued. 
Furthermore there has been a radical change in the method 
of instruction. 

The science work has also been somewhat strengthened 
on the whole. In mathematics, the net change is practically 

null, for what has been gained in the science 

course has been lost in the classical course. 
The natural sciences have gained a few hours, particularly 
in division B. This addition has been chiefly in physiology 
and hygiene, and serves to round off the course of the boys 
who are likely to leave at the end of the first cycle by giving 
them some very definite and practical ideas of the care of the 
person. In physics and chemistry, the instruction has been 
expanded over more years, especially in the second cycle, and 
laboratory work has been more than doubled both in sub- 
jects and in hours. Unfortunately it is restricted to the two 
science sections from the second form upward, but instead of 
a few hours for chemistry, it now embraces physics and natu- 
ral science as well, and has two hours per week during the 
last three years of the course. 

The time devoted to history and geography has been in- 
creased, particularly in the A division of the first cycle, but 

this has been due entirely to increases in the 
Geo^^raphv'^ former subject. As a matter of fact geography 

has lost a half hour in the classical course. 
The most striking modification in history has been the re- 
arrangement of the course whereby Greek and Eoman his- 
tory have been moved from the second cycle to the first. 
This change makes it possible to complete the history of 
France by the end of the third form, and gives those pupils 
that leave at that time a complete, though necessarily super- 



THE PROGRAM 137 

ficial notion of the march of history down to the present 
generation. 

In the old program, French, Latin, and Greek were all 
grouped together under one head. This was perfectly natu- 
ral, for in a given form they were all taught, as 
they are still, by a single teacher. The total ^^^^"^^(^reek "' 
number of hours has fallen off only two in the 
new program as contrasted with the old. The slight loss 
in Latin and Greek has been almost offset by a small gain in 
French. In the course without Latin the time devoted to in- 
struction in the mother tongue remains practically the same. 

In each division of the fourth and third forms one hour 
a week is devoted to ethical instruction. This is an en- 
tirely new departure, introduced for the sake 
of those boys that may drop out at the com- philosophy, 
pletion of the first cycle. It is naturally de- 
signed to play the same part in the first cycle that the phil- 
osophy instruction does in the second cycle. It needs but a 
glance at the detailed program to show how imperfectly 
their task is accomplished. This elementary instruction is 
very similar to the corresponding instruction in the primary 
school system, which savors too much of the reward and 
punishment idea. The efficacy of this instruction is ex- 
tremely doubtful. The philosophy of the philosophy form, 
which includes psychology, esthetics, logic, ethics, and meta- 
physics, is practically unchanged from the old program. 

In looking at the program as a whole, one is struck with 
the marked increase in the number of week hours. Not a 
single class in the entire secondary school sys- 
tem escaped the added burden, and this, too, ^pj^o^ram?*^ 
in spite of the hue and cry that is everywhere 
rising against the heavy loads that school children have to 
bear. Whereas the old program carried ordinarily twenty 
hours of school work per week, under the new program the 
average has been raised nearly four hours, and in some of 
the science sections this is increased to twenty-seven and 
twenty-eight hours. It seems almost incredible that in sev- 



138 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

eral of the higher classes beyond the baccalaureate where 
the boys are preparing for the government engineering 
schools even this latter figure is raised by ten hours. The 
wonder is that the boys do not break down under the strain, 
especially when one considers the restricted life that they 
are compelled to lead, with practically none of that free out- 
door exercise that forms the safeguard of the English and 
American boys, I am told that examiners for the baccalau- 
reate are already seeing the effects of these over-weighted 
programs in the mental condition of the candidates that 
appear before them. 

Eeference to the detailed programs will show that at 
several points in the school period certain optional courses are 
Flexibility in o^^red the pupils. The old program was so 
the Pro- inflexible that once a given line was started it 
gram, ^g^g almost impossible to change without great 
waste of time. The new program is unusually flexible and 
offers numerous opportunities for a change of course as a 
boy's inclinations are modified or his tendencies are devel- 
oped. The elementary years of the secondary school present 
no difficulty. The course is the same for all for the first five 
years. When the sixth form is reached and the secondary 
course, properly speaking, is begun, the parents have to decide 
the first question, whether or not their child is to study Latin, 
At that time the boy is only ten or eleven years old, and the 
choice is not always an easy one. If Latin is not chosen, the 
parent's subsequent task is considerably simplified. Save for 
a rather restricted option in the modern language work, his 
course is practically determined for him. In the second 
cycle he follows the science-modern language group and 
takes his baccalaureate in mathematics. On the other hand, 
if there is any serious doubt in the parent's mind, he ordi- 
narily elects Latin, for more options spread out before the 
boy and he is more likely to find congenial subjects. In the 
fourth form the Latin student has the opportunity of electing 
Greek. In case the latter is chosen, the natural course would 
be to keep on with the classical studies in the Latin-Greek 



THE PROGRAM 139 

group of the second cycle and to reach the baccalaureate 
through the philosophy section. Such, however, is the flexi- 
bility of this program that if the boy is dissatisfied with 
Greek after two years' trial he may drop it entirely and 
change into any one of the other three sections of the second 
cycle. The Latin student who has not chosen Greek falls 
naturally into the Latin-modern language or the Latin-science 
section in the second cycle, although the science-modern lan- 
guage section is likewise open to him. 

At the completion of the first form the pupils come up for 
the first part of the baccalaureate examination, which is based 
upon the work they have had in the second cycle up to that 
point. Then there comes a final choice, although the normal 
progress is to pass from the first form A or B to philosophy 
A or B, and from the first form C or D to mathematics A or 
B. Nevertheless it is quite possible for some pupils that 
have passed the first part of their baccalaureate in one group 
to come up for the second in the other group, assuming, of 
course, that they have made their choice at the end of the 
first form. It seems a little peculiar that the science-modern 
language pupil has the widest choice of courses at this point. 
The four optional courses are practically narrowed down to 
two, for there are only two divisions in the second part of 
the baccalaureate, and the examination is limited to the re- 



T.A l.B 



• Ordinary passage. 
Possible passage. 
Possible passage if pupil knows a Math b''*'^''^/ W^^fPhU.B 

second modern language. 
Passage ordinary impossible. 




I.D I.C 

quired subjects of the philosophy-mathematics form. The 
accompanying figure ^ will show more clearly the possibilities 
at the end of the first form. 

1 Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907, p. 202. 



140 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

For the ordinary walks of business, for those looking for- 
ward to agricultural pursuits and the less important admin- 
istrative positions, division B and its natural 
the Courses successor the science-modern language work 
certainly gives the best training. On the other 
hand, the classical course is intended for those that expect to 
teach along the arts subjects, to enter upon a literary career, 
or to take up the law. The combination division A-section 
B appeals to those looking forward to the diplomatic service, 
and division A-section C prepares for the military and naval 
schools. Not all the four sections in the second cycle are to 
be found in every lyc^e, much less in every secondary school. 
Manifestly where the school population is small the authori- 
ties are compelled to make more or less arbitrary choice, but 
practically all of the big city lyc^es have complete courses. 
However much the new program has been criticized, and its 
opponents are not few, it is decidedly more flexible than the 
old, it goes farther toward offering a liberal education, it re- 
sponds better to the demands of the time, it is France's 
contribution to the solution of the problem of secondary 
education. 

In order to be promoted from one grade to another, every 
pupil must demonstrate his ability to profit by the instruc- 
tion in the higher class. Toward the end of 
Examhmtkms ^^® school year each teacher prepares a rank 
list of his pupils for each subject. The grad- 
ing is all made up on a scale of twenty, and a mark of ten 
or better in any subject excuses the pupil from examination 
in that subject. This puts a premium on faithful conscien- 
tious work throughout the year, and relieves the good 
student of the annoyance and worry of promotion examina- 
tions. The others that have failed to attain this fifty 
per cent standard are compelled to submit to a series of 
examinations. At the completion of this test, the pupils are 
divided into three groups: (1) those that passed; (2) those 
that failed but are to be granted a re-examination in the fall ; 
and (3) those that proved conclusively that they were not 



THE PROGRAM 141 

fitted to pass into the higher class. If a re-examination is 
allowed, the pupil is admitted temporarily into the upper 
class in the fall pending the final decision. If he fails 
again, there is nothing to do but to repeat the previous year's 
work. The decision in every case is made by the head of 
the school after conference with the teachers concerned. It 
is interesting to note that the teacher of the class into which 
the pupil would be promoted is ordinarily a member of the 
jury. Some of the teachers object to the leniency shown in 
these promotion examinations and complain that they are 
consequently compelled to carry along pupils that are mani- 
festly unfitted for the work. 

There is undoubtedly considerable foundation for this 
complaint, for the head of a school will put himself and his 
teachers, to say nothing of the other pupils, to no end of 
inconvenience in order to avoid losing a pupil solely on 
account of deficiency of mental qualifications. He guards 
his pupils almost as jealously as though he were conducting 
a private school. Loss of pupils means a larger deficit at 
the end of the year and consequent poor standing with the 
superior officials, so the head masters and principals are very 
chary about refusing to promote pupils whose parents threaten 
to remove them from the school. It is really a serious 
matter with the school, for the state and the local budgets 
are made up after due consideration of the previous re- 
ceipts. Inasmuch as the running expenses do not vary 
regularly with the number of pupils, a falling off in the 
receipts may lead to grave inconvenience, for there is not a 
single boys' public secondary school in France whose ordinary 
receipts pay its running expenses. This perhaps natural 
attitude of the heads of the schools necessarily cannot fail to 
have a deleterious reaction upon the schools. However this 
may be, the unworthy fellows are sure to be weeded out by 
the baccalaureate, for no financial questions enter into con- 
sideration here. 

The baccalaureate marks the end of the course at the 
lyc^e or college. It is, therefore, purely a degree of sec- 



142 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ondary education, and in this respect differs widely from our 
corresponding degrees. The question immediately arises 
then as to the relative worth of the two de- 
grees, and this is somewhat difficult to deter- 
mine. There is one satisfaction about the French degree : it 
stands for a very definite standard of attainment. Aside from 
the personal equation involved, the degree from the south is 
in every way equal to that from the north, while it is per- 
fectly well known that there is wide divergence among 
the bachelors' degrees from the American institutions. The 
French secondary course carries the pupil to a point that 
is reached by the American boy at our best colleges some- 
where in the course of his sophomore year, but in France 
this goal is attained from two to three years earlier. On 
the other hand, although the French youth possesses a 
more definite and a more exact array of information, the 
greater part of his thinking has been done for him. As I 
have visited scores of classes in the lycees and colleges, this 
fact has been most forcibly brought to my attention. The 
mind of the French student is receptive rather than creative 
or even independent. It is not until after the completion of 
the secondary course that the latter characteristics begin 
to come to the fore. They evolve in spite of the method 
of the educational system rather than on account of it. 
This is the heritage that Loyola and his followers have 
left, and their infiuence is still strong upon the French 
character, far stronger than the ardent republican of to-day 
would have you believe, or would willingly admit even to 
himself. In its outward characteristics, the French second- 
ary school system bears evidence of Napoleon's master hand? 
but deep down beneath the surface the methods of work 
and the fundamental ideals still reveal the impress that 
Jesuit control imposed upon them. 

The baccalaureate examination is held under the direct 
control of the Minister of Public Instruction. He appoints 
a special examining board of four, five, or six members, 
according to the subjects of the examination, divided evenly 



THE PROGRAM 143 

in the first and last cases between members of superior and 
secondary education, and in the second case with the repre- 
sentatives of the lower order in the majority. There are 
two sessions each year, one at the end of one school year 
and the second at the beginning of the next, held in each of 
the fifteen university centers where there are faculties of 
arts and sciences, and at Alger in Africa. The ordinary 
minimum age is sixteen years, though in exceptional cases, 
the Minister may diminish that by a year. The examina- 
tion is divided into two parts, and there must be an interval 
of at least a school year between them. The first part comes 
at the end of the first form, and covers the subjects of in- 
struction during the first two years of the second cycle. 
The second part comes at the close of the philosophy-mathe- 
matics form and covers merely the subjects of instruction of 
that form. In each case the examination is partly written 
and partly oral. The student must pass the written ex- 
amination before being admitted to the oral part which 
succeeds. 

At the time of registering for the examination, the 
candidate indicates which section he is coming under, 
Latin-Greek, Latin-modern languages, Latin-science, or 
science-modern languages. The subjects of the baccalau- 
reate examinations together with the weight attached to 
each one will be found in the table on the following page. 

Three hours are allowed for each of the written examina- 
tions in the first part, except for those in mathematics and 
physics. Here the time is four hours. The mathematics 
section written examinations are each three hours in length, 
while those in the philosophy section are four hours for the 
philosophical dissertation and two hours for the science exam- 
ination. This latter includes physics, chemistry, and natural 
science. The oral examinations are all open to the public. 
Each candidate is kept on the rack three quarters of an 
hour, and he has no easy task in facing an inquisitorial body 
of four, five, or six august professors who take turns in ques- 
tioning him on the eight or nine subjects of the examination. 



144 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



SUBJECTS OF THE BACCALAUREATE EXAMINATIONS 
WITH COEFFICIENTS OF EACH » 



Part I 



Subjects 



Written 

French ^ . . . . 

Latin 

Greek 

Modem lan- 
guages »_ . . . 

Mathematics and 
physics . . . 



Oral 

Greek .... 
Latin .... 
French . . . 
Modern lan- 
guages . . . 
Ancient history 
Modern history 
Geography . 
Mathematics 
Pliysics . . 
Chemistry . 



Totals 



.a » 
i-:iO 



15 



S 3 

.S c 

^ rrt 



14 






20 



19 



Part II 



Subjects 



Written 

Philosophy ^ . . 
Science ^ . . . . 
Mathematics ^ . 
Physics and chem- 
istry ^ . . . . 



Oral 

Philosophy . . . 

Contemporary hist, 
and geography . 

Physics and chem- 
istry 

Natural science . . 

Mathematics . . . 

Physics 

Chemistry . . . . 



Totals 



HRS. 
1 

2 
2 



12 



^ Programme des exwmeiis du baccalauriat de V enseignement secondaire, 
Bull, adm., 1902, I., pp. 705-719. 

2 Three subjects are given. The candidate may select any one. 

2 The paper must be written in the foreign language. The use of a dic- 
tionary entirely in the foreign language is permitted. 

* Each of the two languages in these sections has a coefficient of 1. One 
of these languages is necessarily English or German, the other being chosen 
from English, German, Italian, Spanish, or Russian. In Algeria, Arabic may 
be substituted for either of the modern languages required above. In fact, ac- 
cording to a decree of May 5, 1904, spoken and written Arabic maj' take the 
place of two separate modern languages at the oral examination. In this case, 
the test will be considerably less elementary than if two languages are offered. 



THE PROGRAM 145 

A boy must have his information pretty well in hand in 
order to come through unscathed. Each examination is 
marked upon a scale of twenty, and fifty per cent of the 
total points are required for passing. In case of failure at 
the oral examination the certificate of passage of the first 
part is valid for the two following sessions, that is, for a 
year from its date of issue. The mortality at the two parts 
of the examination is rather heavy, for only about one half 
come through safely. In July, 1907, of the 20,885 candi- 
dates that presented themselves for both parts of the bacca- 
laureate, 10,048 were successful.^ The fees for each part of 
the examination are forty francs, with ten francs additional 
for the certificate that indicates successful passage, and forty 
francs for the diploma. Thus the total cost to the candidate 
amounts to one hundred and forty francs, by no means a 
small sum of money to pay for the ordinary bachelor's 
degree. 

From first to last this is entirely a state examination, 
neither the secondary schools nor the universities as such 
having any part in its conduct. The examiners are ap- 
pointed by the Minister, and the diplomas are conferred by 
the Minister. He may even send out the texts and the sub- 
jects for the written examinations, but in ordinary practice 
these are chosen by the deans of the faculties of letters and 
science. 

The examination for the baccalaureate is thus seen to be 
considerably more difficult to pass than any of the similar 
examinations in America, in the first place by reason of the 
oral character of the more important parts of it, and in the 
second place because of the large number of subjects that 
must be kept clearly in mind. On the other hand, the 
fact that eight or nine subjects must be covered in forty- 
five minutes necessarily reduces it to a decidedly mnemonic 
test, and consequently the burden is somewhat lightened. 
At all events the young man that gains the approval of the 
jury certainly deserves the degree. 

1 L'tcho de Paris, Jan. 16, 1903. 
10 



146 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



The accompanying table shows the final results of the bac- 
calaureate examinations for the last six years. 

RESULTS OF BACCALAUREATE EXAMINATIONS, 1902-1908 







Failed 






Year 


Candidates 






Passed 


Per cent 






passed 






Written 


Oral 






1902 


13251 


4783 


1723 


6745 


51 


1903 


13330 


4779 


1720 


6831 


51 


1904 


15193 


5145 


1980 


8068 


53 


1905 


12991 


4090 


1572 


7329 


56 


1906 


12007 


3721 


1293 


6993 


58 


1907 


11924 


3692 


1297 


6935 


. 58 


1908 


13374 


4816 


1418 


6940 


52 



Since 1905, the new regulations of the program of 1902 
have been in force. In that year the majority of the candi- 
dates presented themselves under the old conditions. Since 
then there has naturally been a rapid falling off, so that in 
1908, only one hundred and fifty came under this caption, 
and next year there will be practically none. The sudden 
diminution in the number of candidates between the years 
1904 and 1905 is probably due to the opportunity afforded by 
the new programs to break the secondary school course at 
the end of the third form and to leave the school with the 
reasonably complete notions given by the work of the first 
cycle. The total number of secondary school students cer- 
tainly shows no such corresponding decrease at this point. 
As a matter of fact the public secondary school population 
has been slowly increasing throughout this period. The 
number of pupils leaving at the end of the first cycle is sub- 
ject to wide variation. In the Paris lyc^es it is comparatively 
small, while in some of the provincial schools it frequently 
amounts to more than fifty per cent. Various causes are 
responsible for this : the changes of domicile and financial 
conditions of the parents ; the desire to have the young man 



THE PROGRAM 147 

take up the business of the father ; the realization that the 
son is not likely to survive the severe competitive examina- 
tions he must pass in order to be admitted into any of the 
higher government schools (save the various university facul- 
ties). Although the noticeable increase in the per cent of 
successful candidates would appear to lend considerable color 
to this interpretation, the mortality even now seems very 
severe. The great majority of the unsuccessful keep coming 
back until they are finally successful or until they have 
reached the age limit that precludes their entering the par- 
ticular state school they had in mind. Then they drift off 
into some department of the government service where the 
possession of the baccalaureate is not indispensable. 

Besides the regular program of instruction already out- 
lined, there are several series of courses especially designed 
to prepare for the higher government schools. <^ . , 
The most important of these schools are the Preparatory 
Polytechnic School and Saint-Cyr, both under Forms, 
the control of the War Department, the former an engineer- 
ing school that fits for both civil and military careers, and 
the latter a military school that corresponds to our own West 
Point; the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, an 
engineering school for all departments of industry and public 
works that do not belong exclusively to the State ; the Naval 
School in the harbor of Brest, corresponding to the naval 
academy at Annapolis ; and the Higher Normal School, oftener 
known simply as The Normal School, under the direction 
of the Department of Public Instruction. This latter is the 
training school for university teachers and for secondary 
teachers of boys' schools. It has two sections, one for letters 
and the other for science. The candidates for the latter 
together with those for the Polytechnic School are enrolled 
in a class called the special mathematics form. The back- 
bone of this course is naturally mathematics, and it includes 
advanced algebra, trigonometry, plane and solid analytic 
geometry, descriptive geometry, and mechanics, besides ad- 
vanced work in physics and chemistry. The preparatory 



148 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

courses for the Central School, Saint-Cyr, and for the Naval 
School likewise include considerable mathematics, but they 
are not so severe as the special mathematics form. The 
preparation for the letters section of the Normal School is 
given in a class known as the upper first form. There is 
no published program of instruction for this form. The 
classes are conducted by some of the ablest teachers of liter- 
ary subjects to be found in the country. They know that 
their pupils have to face a very keen competitive examina- 
tion at the end of the year and they choose that work from 
the program in the upper forms of the secondary course 
that will best fit for this ordeal. These advanced courses 
are by no means found in every secondary school, nor even 
in every lyc^e. Out of the eleven lycees of Paris that have 
upper grade classes, seven prepare for the Polytechnic School 
and the science section of the Normal School, five for the 
Central School, seven for Saint-Cyr, two for the Naval 
School, and six for the letters section of the Normal School. 
For the first five of these schools, the successful candidates 
are ordinarily fairly well distributed over the country, but 
for the last, the Normal School (letters), it is practically 
necessary for the student to come to Paris to study. In 1905, 
out of the thirty-two intrants, twenty-nine of them came 
from the lycees and the University of Paris.^ For both 
sections of the Normal School, the work in these preparatory 
classes is really of imiversity grade, for all these fellows 
already have the bachelor's degree and some have the 
master's. In fact, university students compete on equal 
footing with these advanced secondary students. The stand- 
ard for the Polytechnic and Saint-Cyr is slightly inferior, for 
here the baccalaureate is not absolutely required for entrance. 
Save for a few peculiar cases, the certificate of the first part 
of the baccalaureate is compulsory, and the possession of the 
full degree gives a handicap of from fifteen to sixty points. 
The result is that entrance to these schools is practically on 
a baccalaureate basis. 

^ Annuaire dc la jeunesse, 1907, p. 924. 



THE PROGRAM 149 

The admission to all these schools is solely by competitive 
examination, as is miiversally the case in France in govern- 
ment appointments. If a candidate is unsuccessful one year, he 
usually keeps trying until he succeeds or else is barred out by 
the age limit. It often happens that many of the candidates 
for these higher institutions spend two and sometimes even 
three years in this secondary graduate work. In visiting 
these upper classes, one cannot help feeling that the compet- 
itive examination at the end of the year hangs over the class 
like the sword of Damocles. It absolutely determines the 
choice of subject matter as well as the character of the in- 
struction and makes the work more of a cramming process 
than a culture course. One very able teacher told me that 
the method he followed in preparing his class in history for 
Saint-Cyr was much different from that that he used in his 
other classes. He frankly admitted that there was less 
attempt to develop the minds of his pupils than to fill them 
with information by way of preparation for the examination. 
Now that the great general prize competition (le concours 
general) has been abolished,^ the renown of a school is 
measured largely in terms of the success of its pupils in 
these competitive examinations. In the general entrance 
halls of the lyc^es it is not unusual to find tablets contain- 
ing the names of former pupils that have thus reflected credit 
upon their school. Intellectual attainment in France com- 
mands a higher premium than athletic skill. 

1 Abolished since 1904. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 

It is almost a truism now to say that the early secondary 
schools on the continent were established as clerical training 
The Paris schools. Two of those in Paris that claim such 
Secondary a foundation to-day run far back in history ; 
Schools. Qj^g^ ^j^g present Lyc^e Saint-Louis, was the 
ancient College d'Harcourt which dates from 1180, and 
the other, the Lyc^e Louis-le-Grand, was the original Jesuit 
college in Paris, founded in 1564-65. Although Saint-Louis 
was interrupted during the period between the time of the 
Convention and 1820, Louis-le-Grand has had practically a 
continuous existence ever since its foundation, and is conse- 
quently rich in famous students and in traditions. Both 
these schools are essentially upper form institutions, for the 
lowest class at Louis-le-Grand is the fourth form, and Saint- 
Louis has only one class in the first cycle, one of the third 
form divisions. These two lyc^es are practically comple- 
mentary to each other, for they represent two different types 
of disciplines, the former having only Latin pupils, and the 
latter being exclusively a scientific school. They are both 
fed from the Lyc^e Montaigne, purely an elementary lyc^e 
of the Third Republic whose classes stop where those of the 
two older ones begin. Of the other Paris lycdes, Henri IV., 
which is also on a very old foundation, Condorcet, and 
Charlemagne were in existence at the founding of the new 
University by Napoleon. The College Rollin, supported 
entirely by the city of Paris, and so nominally reckoned 
among the municipal colleges, is nevertheless the peer of 
the lyc^es in name and in fact. Although claiming a very 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 151 

ancient descent from the old College Sainte-Barbe, it actually 
dates from the second decade of the nineteenth century. 
The Lycde Michelet at Vanves, just outside the walls 
of Paris, was established under the last Empire, while all 
the others, Janson-de-Sailly, Buffon, Voltaire, Carnot, and 
Lakanal, have been created since the advent of the Third 
Eepublic. The last named, like Michelet, is also outside 
Paris, although it is likewise reckoned as one of the Paris 
lyc^es. The remaining boys' public secondary school in 
Paris, the College Chaptal, on a municipal foundation, is a 
kind of hybrid institution. It is a combination secondary 
and higher primary school that is governed by special legis- 
lation ; from one point of view it is classed with neither, yet 
from another it must be reckoned with both. 

Thus there are, all told, in Paris twelve boys' lyc^es (in- 
cluding the lower form Montaigne) and two municipal 
colleges. These range in size from Lakanal 
with six hundred pupils to Janson-de-Sailly Sclfools 
with twenty-one hundred. In these twelve 
lyc^es there are approximately twelve thousand pupils, while 
in the ninety-nine provincial lyc^es there are about forty- 
five thousand more. This gives roughly one thousand per 
lyc^e in Paris, and rather less than half that number for 
each of the country schools. No city except Paris has more 
than one boys' lyc^e, although in cities of the second rank, 
like Marseille and Lyon, the schools are badly overcrowded. 
The two municipal colleges in Paris have about twenty-five 
hundred pupils, and the two hundred and thirty others 
about thirty-four thousand. The ordinary communal college 
is thus seen to be a comparatively small school, averaging 
less than one hundred and fifty pupils each. 

There is considerable similarity about the general archi- 
tectural plan of the French secondary schools. Although 
the type was designed to accommodate board- 
ing as well as day pupils, the idea of placing of Schools, 
these schools outside the centers of population 
has not yet received any general recognition, and they are 



152 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

still essentially city structures with all the disadvantages 
that such a situation implies. The lyc^es Michelet and La- 
kanal, which the government has established in the environs 
of Paris as an attempt to test the question of the suburban 
school, as well as several well known private venture schools 
have not attained the success one might have expected. 
The Paris parent still chooses to confine his boy within the 
cloistral precincts of the city lyc^e with its restricted life 
rather than to send him to the suburban lyc^e with its pure 
air and unlimited sunlight. In the city school he can easily 
see his child any noon or afternoon, while he is obliged to 
spend a half day in going out to the suburbs and back. The 
French are passionately bound up in the life of their chil- 
dren and cannot bear to be separated from them. In this 
case their intense love reaches over into the bounds of sel- 
fishness, for they do not realize that in gratifying them- 
selves they are at the same time jeopardizing the welfare of 
their children. The French lyc^e is the lineal descendant 
of the old college, although, thanks to the merging of many 
of these earlier foundations at the time of the expulsion of 
the Jesuits and the subsequent destruction during the an- 
archy of the Eevolutionary period, it is usually difficult to 
trace any direct connection between them. The old colleges 
were boarding schools, so it was not unnatural that the 
new lycdes should continue this characteristic organization, 
especially in view of the large number of national scholar- 
ships, which included food and lodging as well as tuition, 
that were founded by Napoleon. The result is a public 
secondary school organization that does not exist in Ger- 
many, England, or America. The last quarter of the nine- 
teenth century saw such an alarming falling off in the 
number of boarding pupils as to suggest a popular revulsion 
against that form of education, but since the reform pro- 
gram went into effect the boarding pupils have numerically 
held their own, although their numbers have not increased 
with the general growth of the schools. 

The urban situation of the schools and the necessity of 



TKE SCHOOL AND ITS LTFE 153 

providing recreation facilities for the resident pupils have 
gone far toward determining the character of the buildings. 
In general each lyc^e occupies a whole city 
block, the buildings hugging the streets on each i,yllZ 
side and enclosing a hollow square within, 
that is more or less broken up by interior structures into 
separate courts for the different grades of pupils. The lycee 
Janson-de-Sailly, completed about fifteen years ago and situ- 
ated in the newer and more fashionable quarter of the city 
between the Trocad^ro and the Bois de Boulogne, may fairly 
be taken as one of the best types of lycdes in France to-day. 
It covers the greater part of a block and includes more than 
eight acres of ground, one third of it being occupied by the 
various buildings and the remaining two thirds being left 
free and divided into courts liberally supplied with trees. 
The buildings are chiefly three-story structures of brick 
and stone fireproof construction with the greater part of the 
ground floor given over to study and class rooms, and the 
second floor to laboratories and dormitories. Ten of the four- 
teen dormitories are on this second floor, the other four, 
together with the quarters for the domestics that are lodged 
at the school, being on the third floor. The gymnasium, the 
finest I have seen in all France, occupies the very center 
of the plot of ground. Between this and the entrance 
building, which contains the doorkeeper's apartments and 
the school parlors, lies the magnificent court of honor. The 
court of honor, an essential feature of every French secon- 
dary school, together with the head master's garden, is 
rarely profaned by the unholy steps of the ordinary young- 
ster. At Janson-de-Sailly, the entrance building, the court 
of honor, the gymnasium, a small service court, and the 
kitchen and boiler room, situated one behind the other, cut 
out a middle section of the lyc^e grounds. The adjoining 
buildings thus form a large oblong court on either side, 
which is further subdivided into two nearly square courts by 
a covered open-air playground containing the necessary toi- 
let accessories. These four courts are entirely separate, one 



154 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

from the other, so that each of the so-called colleges ^ that 
make up the whole lyc^e has a playground reserved exclu- 
sively for its own pupils. There is still another court be- 
yond the outer quadrangle of buildings set apart for the 
very small children of the infant class, or as one teacher 
facetiously called them, the " microbes." The class rooms are 
ranged about each of these courts, those on the ground floor 
opening directly into it, and those on the floor above opening 
into a long corridor that usually extends along the court 
side. This plan of construction certamly facilitates ingress 
and egress, and in case of need it would be possible to empty 
the class rooms in a remarkably short space of time. 

Most French class rooms are rather barren looking. Those 
at Janson-de-Sailly share the ordinary characteristics save 

that they are well heated from the French 
Arrangements, poi^^ of view, by a central steam heating 

system, and they are moderately well lighted. 
Here the chief source of light is from windows along the 
street side, ordinarily with a secondary source derived from 
one window and a glass top door opening on the court. The 
desks are so placed that this principal light is always at the 
left of the pupils, although its quantity is appreciably dimin- 
ished by widespread use of ground glass. The plain walls, 
bereft of ornamentation, are unbroken save by an occasional 
series of charts hanging on a couple of metal pegs in the 
rooms where geography or history classes meet, and a small 
blackboard, varying in size from 3 by 4 to 4 by 8 feet, over 
the high platform on which the teacher's desk is placed. 
The unhygienic cloth or the yet more unsanitary dry sponge 
still pro\4des the sole means of cleaning this board. On 
very rare occasions one finds a wet sponge early in the 
morning, but this is so unusual as scarcely to merit men- 
tioning. The size of the blackboard necessarily modifies the 

1 This word college has nothing in conmion with college signifying a muni- 
cipal secondary school, but it is used in much the same way that we speak 
about a college of arts, a college of science, etc., to indicate the various parts 
of a larger organization. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 155 

method of instruction, for it is practically impossible to send 
more than one pupil to the board at one time. The French 
teacher takes the position that whatever is worth putting on 
the board should have the constant attention of all the 
pupils. Apparently this sacrifices speed, but when one con- 
siders the total amount of work accomplished the real prog- 
ress does not seem to have suffered. Pupils' desks are 
rarely found in the secondary schools, the ordinary substitute 
being a kind of " form " with occasionally a smgle shelf 
below for books. The form is built for four pupils, and the 
plain wooden benches without backs that accompany it are 
arranged for two pupils each. The seating accommodations 
would thus be uncomfortable enough for a short period, but 
the discomfort must be decidedly aggravated by the end of 
the fifty-five or sixty minute recitation period which prevails 
everywhere. The forms and benches in the science lecture 
rooms are ranged in a series of banks that rise rapidly from 
the demonstration table at the front of the room. It is by 
no means unusual to find a similar arrangement in the ordi- 
nary class rooms, although in the newer buildings they are 
evidently breaking away from that old custom. Scattered 
along the back and one side of the room is a series of hooks 
for hats and capes, for floor space is too valuable to be taken 
up with coat rooms. Some of the schools, however, have a 
combination dressing-room and lavatory near the main en- 
trance to each court, which is used in common by all the 
pupils belonging to that particular college of the lyc^e. 
One is struck by the absence of any assembly hall, but as 
there are no general student assemblies the reason for this 
omission is evident. The only occasion when such a hall 
might be of service would be at the annual distribution of 
prizes, and at this time the gymnasium or some public hall 
is called into service. 

Save for Henri IV., Condorcet, Charlemagne, and possibly 
Saint-Louis, all the Paris schools must be considered as 
modern buildings. The older buildings are really lamentable 
from the hygienic point of view, and in some respects the 



156 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

new ones are not much better. For instance, Louis-le-Grand 
which was almost entirely rebuilt less than fifteen years ago 
Other Paris ^^ a cost of upwards of nine millions of francs 
Schools. and practically forms a part of the group 
of buildings of the new university, is outwardly a mag- 
nificent structure, architecturally considered, but for school 
purposes it is wofuUy disappointing. Either the archi- 
tect was ignorant of the essentials of a school building or 
else he deliberately sacrificed hygienic conditions to artistic 
effect. Out of the dozen or fifteen class rooms I visited 
here, I failed to find one that was even moderately well 
lighted. I have never seen so many pupils suffering from 
poor eyesight as I found in the schools of Paris. I was 
consequently quite ready to believe a prominent oculist 
when he told me that most French people still looked upon 
the theory of eyestrain as a physician's notion. The French 
people seem to prefer less heat than we do, so it is perhaps 
hardly fair to measure the temperature of their rooms by our 
standard. Sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit is very warm for a 
French class room, but I found one room in one of the Paris 
lyc^es where the temperature was under forty-five degrees. 
It was so cold the pupils could hardly hold their drawing 
pencils, yet the two stoves were absolutely unable to raise 
the temperature and there was apparently no procedure 
available either for sending the pupils to another room or 
for postponing the work entirely. It is gi-atifying to find an 
occasional voice raised in protest against the unsatisfactory 
condition of many of the lyc^es from the school point of 
view, and demanding that the architectural commission, to 
whom the construction plans are all submitted, should be 
more largely composed of practical school men. One of the 
Ptibot commission declares that the failure to do this is re- 
sponsible for "those very beautiful buildings which have 
cost so dearly, but in which serious errors have been com- 
mitted from the educational point of view at the expense of 
that intellectual and moral activity which should be the 
center of an educational institution." ^ 

1 Raiberti, Rlgimc dcs hjcics, p. 17, in Enqicite, VI. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 157 

All the schools that have boarding pupils make some pro- 
vision for bathing arrangements. Some of the Paris lycees 
arrange to send their pupils to nearby public 
baths, and in this case each one has a hot tub 
bath at least as often as once a month, as well as more 
frequent foot baths. In some of the schools the tubs that 
were formerly installed there have been replaced by the 
more convenient showers. In one of the Paris schools, 
where unusual importance seemed to be attached to bathing, 
every interne had a warm shower every Wednesday and a 
warm foot bath every Saturday. The room for the latter 
presents a peculiar appearance with its row of a dozen or 
fifteen little tubs ranged along the walls in front of a long, 
low bench. The temperature of the water is regulated by 
an attendant, and the tubs are all filled and emptied simul- 
taneously by a mechanical contrivance manipulated by the 
same operator. The arrangements at this school and the op- 
portunities for use were decidedly the most favorable that I 
have found in all my experience in France. The bath does 
not play the same part in continental life that it does in our 
own, partly, perhaps, because the children are less given to 
those violent forms of athletic exercise that make such con- 
veniences essential. In France the shower never forms an 
accessory to the equipment of the school gymnasium. 

Although for some years now the gymnastic work in all 
the schools has been patterned almost exclusively after the 
Swedish system, each secondary school has its Gymnasium 
gymnasium well equipped according to the and 

French standard. The ordmary type is a good- Gy°^i^a«tics. 
sized hall, the smallest I have found being at least fifty by 
thirty feet on the floor, and two stories high, in the main 
well lighted, but not always well ventilated. In the better 
schools about half the ground area is floored over, the rest, 
dropped somewhat below the ordinary level, being covered 
with eight or ten inches of sawdust or tan bark. All the 
fixed apparatus is on or over this latter section, where the 
soft surface forms an inexpensive substitute for the gymna- 



158 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

sium mat. Although the upper layer is removed from time 
to time and water used with reasonable frequency, it still 
leaves much to be desired from the hygienic point of view. 
The apparatus is all simple, consisting chiefly of wands, 
dumb-bells, parallel bars, flying rings, climbing ropes, a hori- 
zontal bar, a horse, and a jumping board. In the larger 
schools with their numerous classes, it is not unusual to find 
two classes going on simultaneously, one working at the 
heavier apparatus in the pit, while the other is performing 
the Swedish evolutions on the floor. In good weather this 
latter work is often carried on in the open air. The hour 
and a half per week required of all except the candidates 
for Saint-Cyr (they have an hour extra) is cut from the rec- 
reation. It is ordinarily given in half-hour periods. One 
never finds any special dress for any of the gymnasium work, 
the boys merely divesting themselves of their coats and 
waistcoats ; there is consequently no call for the elaborate 
system of dressing-rooms, lockers, and showers that form 
such an essential feature of our own gymnasiums. In the 
smaller provincial schools, this gymnasium equipment is 
often very primitive. At times the building is open to the 
air on one side, and the floor is almost invariably covered 
with a thick layer of dry, mealy loam. 

As to any general widespread interest in athletics in the 
secondary schools, such a thing practically does not exist, 
partly because there is no time for such diver- 
sion, but rather because whatever fondness for 
such activity one finds in France to-day is chiefly an acquired 
characteristic. There does not seem to be that innate love 
for the athletic life that forms such a marked trait of the 
Anglo-Saxon youth. Most of the Paris lycees have their 
Eugby and Association football teams, and even teams for 
some of the events that appear upon our regular track and 
field day programs, but a perusal of the weekly schedule 
of the French schoolboy will show how impossible it is for 
him to do any systematic work in these sports. On Sunday 
mornings in pleasant weather, one may often see groups o£ 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 159 

boys journeying out into the suburbs for some inter-school con- 
test, but the athletic life of the school is limited to encounters 
of this sort, where general enthusiasm and the expression of 
strong school spirit are rarely found in any great degree. 

No secondary school for internes is complete, even in Paris 
where hospitals are plenty, without its infirmary. Either 
occupving an entire buildiug or else far re- ^ ^ 

i o -, T ■ i_ j_i • Infirmary. 

moved from the common livmg quarters, this 

infirmary with its separate kitchen and dining room, with 
its contagious ward, its nursing staff, and the one or more 
school physicians at a moment's call, is perfectly capable of 
handling any ordinary situation that is likely to arise. Of 
course in serious surgical cases recourse is had to the city 
hospitals, but in the simpler illnesses the pupil is much better 
cared for at the infirmary than he could be at a large hospital 
or even at home. 

The apartments of the head master, the censor, the bursar, 
the general surveillants, and the lodgings provided for some 
of the ushers and other members of the ad- 
ministrative staff as well as the domestics that Pupiis.*' 
live at the school, to say nothing of the accom- 
modations for the boarding pupils, necessarily make Janson- 
de-Sailly an establishment of considerable size. Although 
its dormitories were designed to accommodate four hundred 
and fifty pupils, there were only about two hundred actually 
in residence during the year 1906-7. A similar condition 
of affairs seems generally to prevail, so that there is a veri- 
table crisis in the boarding school side of the secondary 
school system. For many years now the number of such 
pupils in all the lyc^es has been growing relatively smaller, 
in spite of the efforts that have been made to ameliorate the 
situation. Consequently, the three newest lyc^es were not 
built to accommodate boarding pupils. At Janson-de-Sailly, 
the dormitories are fine, spacious rooms, with accommodations 
for thirty-two boys in each.^ These rooms are all high- 

1 The only boys' state schools I found where there were private rooms 
were the College RoUin in Paris and the Lycee Lakanal just outside the walls 



160 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

studded, light, and airy, with windows along each side, one 
between each two beds. Midway down one side are the 
surveillant's quarters curtained off from the rest of the room. 
These are nothing but a raised platform containing a chair, a 
bed, and a toilet table, and so placed that the surveillant can 
see every part of the dormitory. On either side of this plat- 
form is a door leading to the lavatory. Here each boy has 
his own marble wash basin with space for toilet articles and 
a hook for his towel ; he is not allowed to keep anything in 
the dormitory during the day. The only furnitiu-e in the 
dormitory is the single beds, with a small floor rug beside 
each and a clothes hook on the wall for use during the night 
only. The extra suits and shoes of all the boys in the dor- 
mitory are kept in individual, open lockers in a separate 
room opening out of one end of the dormitory, and the 
underclothes, handkerchiefs, neckwear, bed and table linen 
are neatly piled in a series of small lockers in still another 
room. These are cared for by a motherly looking woman 
who keeps everything in good repair. 

When the boarding pupils enter the lyc^e, each must be 
provided with an entirely new outfit of clothes and supplies, 
containing at least the articles enumerated below : ^ 

Period of 

RenewaIj 

1 cape of blue cloth with detachable hood 3 yrs. 

1 jacket (or frock coat, for pupils of first form and above), 
blue cloth, palm leaves embroidered in gold on points of 
collars, and gilt buttons of the lyc6e 1 J " 

2 prs. winter trousers, blue cloth, one pr. each 1 " 

1 pr. trousers, cheviot (for pupils of the little lyc6e only) . . 1 ". 

2 winter waistcoats, blue cloth, single row of small gilt but- 
tons, one every 1^ " 

2 prs. simimer trousers, of light wool, one pr. each 1 " 

2 summer waistcoats, of light wool, one pr. each I2 '■ 

at Sceaux. Here the old dormitories h.ad been cut up into a series of cubicles, 
so to speak, by erecting a series of partitions about eight feet bigh between 
the beds. The upper part of the room was all opeu so as to facilitate the sur- 
veillauce, but even this arrangement gave each boy some measure of privacy. 
' Prospectus of the Lycee Jansou-de-Sailly, at Paris, p. 25. Tlie variations 
between this and those of the other lycees and colleges are merely verbal. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 161 

2 winter coats, of wool, one pr. each 1 yr. 

2 summer coats, of cotton and wool, one each 1 " 

1 cap, blue cloth with gold pahns, one each 1| " 

1 tam-o'-shanter, for winter 1 " 

3 prs. lace shoes As necessary 

6 linen sheets, 3m. 30 by 2m. 10 " 

12 linen towels, Om. 94 by Om. 73 " 

10 wliite shirts " 

4 night shirts " 

18 linen handkerchiefs " 

4 prs. cotton drawers " 

4 black cravats, one every 3 mos. 

14 prs. cotton stockings As necessary 

1 toilet set including comb, fine comb, hair brush, 

comb brush, clothes brush, nail brush, tooth brush, " " 

1 stamp for marking clothes " " 

1 laundry bag " " 

This clothing must conform to a particular type. The 
cost is 458 or 478 francs depending upon whether the boy 
wears a jacket or a frock coat. The parents are at liberty to 
supplement this list with such additional clothing as the boy 
is accustomed to wear. If the parents so desire, the regula- 
tion supplies will be furnished by the lyc^e and charged 
upon the term bill. The lyc^e will also look after the re- 
pairs and the necessary renewals at an annual cost of 160 
francs. No mention is found here of collars or cuffs. If 
these are attached to the shirts, they are reckoned with the 
latter. If detached, as the collars are usually, the laundry 
work is done outside the school and it is always at the ex- 
pense of the pupil. Within the school, the boys are at 
liberty to wear ordinary clothes, but nobody may go out at 
any time without the full regulation blue uniform of the 
lycde. When the pupil severs his connection with the 
school, all his property is returned to him, save the sheets 
and the towels, which are retained for the use of the in- 
firmary. 

In applying for admission, every pupil must submit : 

11 



162 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

1. His birth certificate ; 

2. A certificate attesting that he has been vaccinated ; 

3. A class certificate, if he comes from a Paris lycee or college ; 

4. A certificate of good conduct if he comes from any other 
Bchool ; 

5. A certificate testifying that his account at any other lycee 
he may have attended is paid ; and 

6. A bulletin containing, besides the customary personal and 
family information, the address of his correspondent in Paris, the 
names of the persons whom the parents authorize to take him 
away from the school, the names of the persons authorized to visit 
the pupil at the school parlor, and finally the religious persuasion 
of the boy, and whether or not he is to attend religious services 
and to receive religious instruction. 

Some of these requirements, notably those in the last 

section, appear rather peculiar to one accustomed to the free 

open life of our American schools, but the 
Correspondents. „ ,. < i tp ,i 

more one sees oi contmental lire, the more one 

is impressed with the innumerable restrictions that surround 

the individual from the moment he comes into the vroiid 

until he takes his leave therefrom. Yet France is nominally 

a republic like our own. The correspondent referred to 

above is a person designated by the parent, in case he does 

not live in Paris, to act as his personal representative as far 

as his boy's relations with the school are concerned. The 

correspondent pays the pupil's term bills, agrees to take him 

away from the lycde at least once a month, and stands ready 

to receive him at any time in case it becomes necessary to 

send him away from the school for any reason whatsoever. 

The parents likewise designate to the head master all the 

persons who are authorized to call to take the sons away from 

the school. Each pupil is entitled by right to 
Leave of ^ leave of absence every alternate Sunday, while 

on the other Sunday he is granted this by favor 
in case the character of his work and his conduct are above 
reproach. On ordinary days no pupil is allowed to leave 
the school except for very unusual reasons. On Sundays 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 163 

even, tlie pupil may leave the school only between certain 
hours, between eight and eleven, between half past twelve 
and half past one, and between quarter past four and quarter 
past five. In any case he must be back by ten o'clock m the 
evening. Before leaving, each boy receives a card on which 
are inscribed the time of his departure and the time he is 
to come back. On his return he must deliver this to the 
general surveillant signed by the person at whose house he 
has been. Pupils under seventeen years of age must be 
called for by their parents, guardians, correspondents, or other 
persons specially delegated for this purpose by the parents 
and approved by the head master. In case any other person 
claims this privilege, he must present a letter dated and signed 
by the pupil's family. Under certain conditions and at the 
special request of the parents, boys under seventeen may be 
allowed to leave and return unaccompanied by an older per- 
son. In the case of boys over seventeen, this permission is 
granted only when the parents express such a desire. Such 
is the care with which these comings and goings are regu- 
lated that no boy is ever under any circumstances allowed 
to leave the school alone unless the head master is assured 
in writing, either by a note attached to the leave card of the 
previous week or by letter addressed to the school, that the 
proper person is expecting the boy on the following Sunday. 
Even when there are several consecutive holidays, the pupils 
are not allowed to sleep at home save at the written request 
of their parents. 

The boys in the schools in France are as much restricted in 
the matter of their correspondence as are the pupils in the 
most exclusive girls' boarding schools in Amer- Correspond- 
ica. The letters are all carefully inspected, and ence and 
parents are urged not only to countersign all isitors. 
their own letters, but also to deposit with the school author- 
ities the autograph and the signature of everybody with whom 
their children are authorized to correspond. In general the 
pupils' visitors are restricted to their relatives and "corre- 
spondents." If other friends wish to see them, they must 



164 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

present to the school authorities a written request from the 
parents to that effect. All visits take place during the chief 
recreation periods, between half past twelve and half past 
one, and between half past four and five o'clock. Such is 
the strictness with which this school life is dominated that 
brothers belonging to different divisions in the same lycde 
are allowed to see each other only during recreation periods 
and in the school parlor. 

Although the presence of boarding pupils at the public 
secondary schools in France is probably their most striking 
characteristic to a stranger, not all or even the 
PupiL° major part of the students fall in this category 
to-day. In the original colleges practically all 
the pupils were in residence. Even at the time of the found- 
ing of the university by Napoleon, the internes still formed the 
major part of the secondary school population. Since that 
time there has been almost a steady decline in their relative 
number, as the table on the following page will show. 

There are four general categories of students: boarders, 
half boarders, supervised day pupils, and ordinary day 
pupils. In all the secondary schools save five lyc^es in 
the city of Paris, these four classes are all represented, 
although in the great majority of the municipal colleges, 
the boarding department is carried on at the private ini- 
tiative of the head master. The half boarders, as well 
as the day pupils, live at home, or else in certain private 
families or pensions sanctioned by the head master. The 
former enjoy all the rights and privileges of the boarding 
piipils, except that they have only two meals at the school 
and they sleep outside. Their books and school supplies 
are included in their regular fees, and they are likewise 
called upon to furnish their individual table linen. They 
come to school in the morning at eight or half past, ac- 
cording to the time of the morning class, and they remain 
all day until half past six or seven o'clock, the close of 
the last study period. During the intervening hours they 
are to aU intents and purposes regular boarding pupils, 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 165 

PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL POPULATION (BOYS) 1809-1906* 



Year 


Boarders 


Half Boarders 


Day Pupils 


Totals 




S 


C 


S 


c 


S 


C 


S C 


1809 


5782 


5312 


145 


276 


3141 


12919 


9068 


18507 












(2188) 




27575 


1811 


5651 


7177 


248 


580 


5027 
(2566) 


16401 


10926 124204 
35130 


1813 


5709 


8931 


427 


848 


8356 
(4620) 


19730 


14492 (29559 
44051 


1816 


4068 


5461 


172 


499 


4373 
(2774) 


12532 


'8613 1 18554 
27167 


1821 


4973 


6185 


251 


577 


6834 
(4185) 


15963 


12058 1 22799 
34857 


1826 


5263 


7051 


328 


603 


8291 
(4885) 


17727 


13882 1 25490 
39372 


1831 


5164 


7557 


299 


711 


8988 
(4967) 


16863 


14451 125348 
39799 


1836 


5474 


7484 


433 


842 


8962 
(4697) 


14286 


14869 1 22925 
37794 


1841 


6741 


8996 


586 


1134 


9950 

(5175) 


14905 


17277 125324 
42601 


1851 


7011 


8266 


880 


1183 


11378 
(7126) 


16869 


19269 126318 
45587 


1861 


13318 


9742 


2670 


1674 


12387 
(9402) 


18497 


28375 1 29913 
58288 


1871 


14486 


9950 


3186 


1500 


17346 
(15059) 


18280 


35018 i 29730 
64748 


1881 


19523 


13980 


5243 


2441 


22969 
(21040) 


24883 


47889 ' 1 41304 
89193 


1891 


17385 


10235 


5353 


1652 


29503 

(27895) 


20155 


52241 1 32042 
84283 


1901 


12744 


10077 


6008 


2244 


33571 

(27766) 


21051 
(15194) 


52323 1 33372 
85695 


1906 


12323 


10772 


5271 


2359 


40016 

(32152) 


23485 
(17315) 


57610 1 36616 
94226 



8 = State secondary schools, during the years covered by this table, first called 
lyc^es, then royal colleges, and finally lyc^es again. 

c = Communal or municipal colleges. 

The ordinary figures under "Day Pupils" from 1809 to 1841 do not fairly represent 
the real state of affairs, for they include those pupils living at institutions of various 
sorts who are brought to the school in the morning and taken away again at night. 
These latter are practically boarding pupils that live outside the school . For the years 
1901 and 1906, the ordinary figures mclude also the supervised day pupils. In every 
case the figures in parentheses under the same caption indicate the number of 
ordinary day pupils. The break between 1813 and 1816 is significant. If the figures 
for all the years were included, a similar state of affairs would be noted after 1830, 
1848, and 1870, thus showing how quickly the school population reacts to political 
disturbances. 

1 There is some discrepancy in the official figures here. 

* Compiled from Villemain; Statistique, 1876,1887; Enquete; and Budget, 1908. 



166 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

both having their meals, their recreations, and their super- 
vised study periods in common. The ordinary day stu- 
dents take no part in the life of the lyc^e outside the 
regular class work, while the supervised day students 
enjoy the additional privilege of studying at the school 
after the classes of the day are over under the super- 
vision of the ushers. Except for the time between the 
close of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon 
classes, their hours at the school correspond to those of 
the half boarders, but they do not share in the text-book 
privileges of the latter. The parents of both these classes 
of pupils are kept in much closer touch with the work 
of their children than are those of the ordinary day pupils, 
by means of a system of daily report books. In these 
the usher in charge of the study room enters the marks 
that each pupil has received during the day, whether 
given by himself or by the class teacher, together with any 
communication the administration wishes transmitted to 
the parents. These report books are sent home every 
night and must be brought back the next morning, signed 
by the parent or his duly authorized representative. The 
pupils that come and go are strictly forbidden to under- 
take any commissions outside for the boarding pupils. Al- 
though boy-like this regulation is doubtless transgressed, 
it is not often. In fact there is little opportunity for 
any collusion, for they have no chance to see each other 
privately. In some of the largest lyc^es the internes 
are sometimes in classes by themselves, and in any case, 
whether in the class room, in the study room, or on the 
playground, they are under constant supervision. 

The fees charged by the State for this instruction 

show a very wide variation, especially in the pro\dncial 

schools, but it is certainly questionable if 

the real worth of the instruction varies as 

greatly. The accompanying table shows the amount of 

these fees : 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 



167 



ANNUAL FEES IN PARIS AND PROVINCIAL LYCfiES^ 
(Amounts in Francs) 





Day Pupils 


Supervised 
Day Pupils 


Half Boarders 


Boarders 




Prov. 


Paris 


Prov. 


Paris 


Prov. 


Paris 


Prov. 


Paris 


Infant 


















Class 


40-70 


90-100 


60-110 


130-140 


225-400 


500-550 


350-700 


900 


Prepara- 


















tory- 


















Seventh 


















Form . 


50-150 


100-300 


90-220 


140-370 


275-500 


550-700 


450-9000 


1000-1100 


First 


















Cycle . 


80-200 


300-350 


120-290 


390-440 


325-600 


750-850 


500-1050 


1300 


Second 


















Cycle . 


100-250 


350-450 


150-340 


440-540 


375-675 


800-1000 


550-1150 


1500 


Special 


















Prepara- 


















tory 


















Forms . 


320-500 


650-700 


380-590 


740-790 


575-725 


950-1200 


950^1250 


1650 


Prov., Provincial Lycees. Paris, Paris Lycees. 



The official regulations contain even more divisions 
than are represented here, but the table has been con- 
densed for the sake of simplicity. The very wide ex- 
tremes found for the preparatory-seventh form above may 
partially be explained on the score that these figures 
extend from the lowest priced tenth form to the high- 
est priced seventh form. In spite of all the care ex- 
pended in making an equitable distribution of charges, 
however, there are still some manifest inequalities. It 
is obviously unfair to charge some of the pupils in the 
second cycle in the Paris lycees 1,150 francs for their 
expenses aside from tuition fees, while pupils in the 
special preparatory classes at the same school are pay- 
ing only 950 francs for the same privileges. A careful 
study of the fees at some of the provincial schools will 
bring out even stronger injustices. 

* Compiled from Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907, pp. 218 et seq., 550-551. 



168 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The fees of the boarding pupils cover instruction, 
text-books, and class room supplies, food and lodging, 
including bedding ( aside from linen ), washing, mending, 
simple drugs and medicines prescribed by the visiting 
physician, and the ordinary repairs to the foot wear. 

The lyc^e makes ample provision for pupils that desire 
private lessons outside the regular school subjects, for 
attached to every school are teachers of the 
piano and other musical instruments, fencing, 
special gymnastics, dancing, boxing, swimming, and riding, 
that are recommended by the administration. Instruction 
in these accomplishments is naturally an extra for which 
the families arrange directly with the teachers or through 
the mediation of the bursar as jfinancial agent only. 
The time for this work is all taken from recreation pe- 
riods, but no boarding pupil is allowed to participate 
in any of these activities without the approval of the 
head master. Except for the fencing and the horseback 
riding, which are prescribed for the candidates for 
Saint-Cyr, no one of these activities engages the atten- 
tion of any large portion of the internes, the poor fellows 
being so crowded with work that the time would fail 
even if the inclination were present, but in walking about 
the grounds any afternoon during the recreation periods, 
one will commonly hear the click of the foils or the 
subdued scrapiag of a distant violin. 

The discipline in the French lyc^e of to-day is mildness 
itself compared to the conditions that existed prior to the re- 
form of 1890. At that time the rigor of the 
military code that had prevailed since the 
First Empire was largely abolished, the roll of the drum as 
the signal to mark the limits of the classes and the various 
other activities of the daily life being perhaps the most strik- 
ing heritage of the former r^ime. Nowadaj'S the pupils 
are allowed to talk in a human fashion at meal time, while 
changing classes, and during the gymnasium period. Even 
though the teacher of the present has lost some of the char- 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 169 

acteristics of the martinet of old days, it is decidedly unusual 
to find evidences of any close personal feeling between the 
teacher and the pupils to-day. The very great majority of 
the teaching staff seem to be interested in the life of the 
pupils in the abstract rather than in the concrete. Outside 
the narrow limits of the class the teacher is absorbed in his 
own work and in his own professional advancement, for he 
takes the position that in the long run this is the most effec- 
tive way of insuring the intellectual growth of his class as a 
whole. This makes the attitude of the devoted men I have 
met who take the opposite view of their own personal obli- 
gations in their teaching work stand out all the more 
clearly. In the main the relationship between teacher and 
pupils seems to be intellectual and collective rather than 
social and individual. Theoretically the head master is the 
unifying element in all the influences brought to bear upon 
the pupils, but where the school population numbers hun- 
dreds, and even passes the thousand mark, as it does in 
several instances, the task is manifestly impossible of realiza- 
tion. Although this latter evil was very clearly indicated 
in the report of a committee appointed to study the question 
twenty years ago,i no marked amelioration of conditions 
seems yet to have been effected. 

The chief incentive to stimulate the pupils to work is un- 
doubtedly provided by the marking system. One can hardly 
spend a half hour in any class without being punishments 
struck by the importance attached to this. and 

Every individual recitation is valued by the ^^'^^^' s- 
teacher ordinarily on a scale of ten, and the pupil eagerly 
awaits the measure of appreciation accorded his work, and 
usually records it in his report book. It must be noted in 
this connection that the conduct of the recitation in France 
presents certain marked characteristics. It is a most formal 
ordeal for the pupil, for he is ordinarily called up before the 
class and is subjected to a searching inquiry. The teacher 

1 Rapport de la Sous-Commission de disci2}line, 1888, Eecueil de regie- 
menis relatifs d V enseignement secondaire, p. 735. 



170 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

is thus able to arrive at an accurate appreciation of tlie pu- 
pil's comprehension of the subject, or at least of his knowl- 
edge of the lesson of the day. Under this system, a mark 
of zero is seldom given. All written work is carefully val- 
ued, this time upon a scale of twenty, and the marks are 
usually announced to all the class when the papers are re- 
turned. It is not at all uncommon to see half a dozen boys 
taking down the marks of all their comrades, for thus they 
are able to keep track of their relative positions in the classes, 
and their chance for distinction at the regular periods. All 
the marks, whether for recitations or for written work, 
whether given by the regular teachers in the class room or 
by the usher in the study room, are sent to the censor every 
day and by him transmitted to the head master. In this 
way the administration keeps in daily touch with the work 
of each individual pupil in the school, and any slighting of 
work is promptly communicated to the parents in the case of 
the outside pupils or dealt with in the school itself in the 
case of the internes. Several poor marks are likely to draw 
down upon the pupO. some more severe punishment. He 
may have to do his work over again partially or entirely ; he 
may have extra work assigned to be done ; or he may be re- 
quired to return to school on Thursday, the regular secular 
holiday in France, or on Sunday morning for one or two 
hours of work. In more severe cases the internes may be 
deprived of the regular Thursday or Sunday walk, or even be 
denied leave of absence on Sundays or holidays. This latter 
punishment is comparatively rare and is never imposed 
except in instances of real gravity. Pupils are sometimes 
excluded from the class or study room and sent to the 
censor with a note. This is rather a serious punishment 
and is likely to result in the infliction of one of the penalties 
just mentioned. Finally there is temporary or permanent 
exclusion from the school. The head master has control of 
all the severer punishments, save that of exclusion which is 
pronounced by the disciplinary council. This is a body com- 
posed of the head master as president, the censor, five pro- 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 171 

fessors, and a general surveillant and two ushers chosen hj 
their colleagues, which was instituted to secure the co-opera- 
tion of the various factors of the administration in cases 
where severe disciplinary action had to be taken. Except 
in most unusual cases, a warning always precedes the impo- 
sition of the extreme penalty. It is worth noting that tlie 
functions of this council are not confined to punishment, for 
pupils that have particularly distinguished themselves may 
also be called before it to receive its congratulations . 

Aside from the records of daily work already referred to,^ 
formal reports are sent out every three months for the 
upper division and twice as often for the other pupils. 
These trimestrial reports are of considerable importance. 
They are made up for each class or each section by all the 
teachers of that particular group in common meeting. Fur- 
thermore the head master appears in person before each class 
to make public announcement of the grades received by the 
various pupils, and to add his personal comments of encour- 
agement or reproof. At these same teachers' conferences, 
one or two pupils are selected from each class on the basis 
of all-around achievement for inscription upon the roll of 
honor of the school. This is posted in a conspicuous place 
in the entrance hall in plain view of pupils, parents, and 
visitors, there to remain until a new selection is made at the 
end of the next quarter. 

The grand gala day of the whole year is the distribution 
of prizes which marks its close. Under the presidency of 
the mayor of the commune or the arrondisse- „ . 

. , c • • c • ^ Prizes. 

ment, it becomes a festive occasion of consid- 
erable local significance. The pupils receive much good 
counsel in a lay sermon preached by one of their masters or 
some invited guest along the traditional ethical or patriotic 
lines ; the parents are flattered if their child's name appears 
in the inordinately long prize list ; and a widespread feeling 
of good fellowship is engendered toward the State in general 
and toward the lyc^e in particular. The distinctions are 

1 Cf. supra, p. 166. 



172 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

awarded not only on the general average of the work of the 
year, but on the results of the marks obtained in the comijo- 
sitions. These latter are no whit different from quarterly 
examinations, save that their chief function appears to be to 
furnish the basis for the distribution of the above distinc- 
tions. Aside from the hardship of laying so much stress on 
three single examinations, the chance for possible injustice 
is further enhanced by doubly weighting the last examina- 
tion in each series. Thus although these papers are all 
marked on a scale of twenty, the importance of this latter in 
the prize competition is determined by doubling the mark 
originally obtained. It is gratifying to find here and there a 
growing opposition to this system of compositions and prizes, 
although one has little ground for sharing the opinion of one 
optimistic censor who declared that the abolition of these 
two evils was already in sight. The prize list of one of the 
Paris lyc^es at the close of the year 1906-7^ contained 
nearly twenty-eight hundred names, accredited with various 
degrees of excellence varying from first prizes to mere hon- 
orable mentions. These were all gained by the pupils from 
the fourth form up, who make up about half the twenty-one 
hundred boys at the school. It would thus almost appear 
to be a mark of greater distinction not to have one's name 
upon the prize list. Such a custom seems quite mcompre- 
hensible to an American, but the whole question becomes 
lucid enough when one recalls the role that the decoration 
plays in the French national life. The recipients of these 
state favors range all the way from the humble workman 
who receives a few sous per day added to his ordinary wage 
to the illustrious scientist or man of letters who is justly 
proud of being admitted to the " Immortals." In January, 
1908, at the annual distribution of honors, the French gov- 
ernment conferred no fewer than five thousand three hun- 
dred and seventeen decorations,^ or one for every seven 
thousand five hundred men, women, and children in the 

1 Lyc4c Jansnn-dc-Sallhf, Disfribution solonnelle dcs prix, 21 juillct,19Q7, 

2 Journal Officicl, Jan. 20, 1908. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 173 

land. It is such a generally recognized means of stimula- 
tion to effort that the great number of honors conferred by 
the school above occasioned no surprise. The French point 
of view on the treatment of the question of prizes is clearly 
shown in a report on that subject in 1888 : " The prize is an 
excellent recompense in itself. To give a good book as an 
encouragement to a pupil that is fond of study, in other 
words, to put into his hands an opportunity for work and 
further progress, what could be wiser ? . . . The prize is 
only an addendum and a symbol ; the real recompense is the 
publication of the results of the work." ^ 

Although some of the very early colleges had a certain 
number of free scholarships, the system as it is at present 
administered owes its origin to Napoleon. At 
first the basis of selection (for the scholarship 
holders were to be appointed by the First Consul from 
among the cliildren of soldiers or public functionaries who 
had died in the performance of their duty) furnishes a 
further indication of the tendency of his government to 
create an office holding class. The free tuition in the lyc^es 
and colleges to-day granted to children of primary and sec- 
ondary teachers, although nominally intended to provide an 
additional perquisite to a poorly paid class of individuals, 
is a survival of that earlier custom that is pointing in the 
same direction. The danger of such a tendency has already 
been signalized : " The great majority of the French aspire 
to a public calling, and it appears that among the young 
men whom the State is educating at its own expense the 
proportion of future functionaries is greater than it is any- 
where else. Out of a total of nine hundred and seventy-five 
scholarship holders that left the lycdes during the years 
1894, 1895, and 1896, only one hundred and seven had the 
wisdom to turn to commercial or industrial life." ^ In 1802 
we find a new criterion entering into the basis of selection 

^ Rapport de la Sous-Commission de discipline, 1888, Recueil de riglements 
relatifs a V enseignetnent sccondaire, pp. 768-769. 

2 Mass:^, Bourses nationales, p. 26, in Snquete, VI. 



174 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of these scholarship holders: the competitive examination. 
These two features together with a third emphasized by 
the Third Eepublic, the need of the family, determine the 
awards of these grants at the present time. 

The remission of tuition fees in the secondary schools 
accorded the children of primary and secondary teachers is 
not looked upon as a scholarship, although the actual effects 
in the two cases are exactly the same. This remission is 
granted by right up to the amount carried on the budget for 
that purpose,^ and is dependent upon no examination. Chil- 
dren of primary teachers receive free instruction as ordinary 
day pupils, and children of secondary teachers are granted 
the additional privileges of supervised day pupils, although 
the enjoyment of such grants in no case precludes the possi- 
bility of the same pupils gaining regular scholarships in 
addition, in the first instance as supervised day pupils, as 
half boarders, or as full boarders, and in the second instance 
as half boarders or as full boarders. 

As has perhaps been inferred, the scholarships, whether pro- 
vided by the State, the department, or the commune, fall into 
four general categories : (1) full board and tuition ; (2) half 
board and tuition ; (3) tuition with the supervised study room 
privileges ; (4) simple tuition ; although these are often 
awarded as wholes or as portions of scholarships as the exi- 
gencies of the individual case render advisable. These are 
granted in every instance after competitive examination, and 
only to those children where the financial condition of the 
family justifies the grant, cognizance being taken of the ser- 
vices the family has rendered to the nation. The depart- 
mental scholarship holders are appointed by the general 
council of the department ; the communal scholarship hold- 
ers by the municipal council, with the approval of the prefect ; 
and the national scholarship holders by the Minister or the 

1 The chapter in the budget for 1908 which inchides exceptions granted 
children of the functionaries of the primary and secondary systems, in the 
boys' and girls' lycees and colleges, and the girls' secondary courses amounts 
to 1,775,200 francs. Budget g6n6ral de Vexcrcice,\%Oi, chap. 81. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 175 

President after the results have been tabulated by a central 
scholarship commission. 

The scholarship examination committees for the boys' lycdes 
and colleges consist of an academy inspector and four other 
members appointed by the rector from among the present or 
past professors of secondary or higher education. Modern 
language professors may be added temporarily wherever 
modern languages form a part of the examination. The 
examinations are held during the first fortnight in April in 
the chef -lieu of each department. The candidates fall into 
one of six series with maximum age limits from twelve to 
fourteen, and sixteen to eighteen inclusive, respectively, when 
the examinations are based upon the work of the sixth to the 
first form inclusive. The examinations are both written and 
oral, a mark of at least twenty out of a possible forty being 
requisite for admission to the latter. The written examina- 
tion questions, formerly chosen by the departmental examin- 
ing boards, are now sent out by the central commission, thus 
tending as far as possible to put all the candidates upon equal 
footing. In the main, especially in the second cycle, the 
written examination bears upon the subjects which charac- 
terize the work of the section in question, while the two 
parts together cover practically all the subjects of instruc- 
tion in the form. Immediately at the close of the examina- 
tion, the results are tabulated and sent off to the central 
commission at Paris. Every candidate who receives half 
the possible maximum is credited with a certificate of attain- 
ment, which, however, carries with it no further privilege than 
favorable consideration by the central commission. Eather 
more than one half of all the applicants are eliminated by 
these examinations, but still the task of the commission is 
by no means easy, for they ordinarily have yet to eliminate 
nearly two thirds of the remainder. Their decision is based 
upon two general sources of information : the pupil's intel- 
lectual potentialities as indicated by the examination he has 
just passed, as well as by his entire school career up to that 
time ; and upon the income, taxes, and the resources of every 



176 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

sort that bear upon the ability of the parents to support the 
boy at school. This latter question is studied most exhaust- 
ively, the regulations requiring that every statement con- 
tained therein be certified by the mayor of the commune 
where the family lives. On the basis of these two general 
reports, the commission makes its recommendations to the 
Minister. 

Even when a scholarship is granted, it is awarded tenta- 
tively for a year unless the recipient has been at the school 
for at least a year. This trial scholarship may be renewed 
for another year, but at the expiration of that time it lapses 
automatically unless it is converted into a regular scholar- 
ship, technically known as a merit scholarship. This latter, 
if gained during the first cycle, is valid until the end of the 
third form, at which time it may be renewed, provided the 
holder has reached a certain standard of excellence in his 
work and conduct ; if gained during the second cycle, it is 
continued until the beneficiary reaches nineteen years of age, 
although in exceptional cases the grant may be prolonged 
for a year, or even longer after this point. The judgment of 
the commission is almost invariably borne out by the subse- 
quent school life of the pupil, for it is rare that a scholarship 
is forfeited,^ and although constituting less than six per cent 
of the entire public secondary school population, these honor 
pupils invariably outnumber their non-scholarship classmates 
(sometimes by nearly two to one), in passing the competitive 
examinations for appointment to the various higher govern- 
ment schools.^ The number of scholarship holders in the 
boys' secondary schools was 1,288 in 1905, and 1,158 in 1906. 
The budgets for 1907 and 1908 each carried 2,767,000 francs 
for the total amount of such scholarships in both boys' and 
girls' schools,^ the boys' being about five and a half times as 

^ For the years 1894-96, less than four tenths of one per cent per annum. 
Massif, op. cit., p. 35. 

2 Ibid., p. 75. 

3 Budget de Vexercicc 1908, chap. 79. The annual appropriation of the city 
of Paris for this purpose is 180,000 francs. Bull, adm., 1903, I., p. 181. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 177 

numerous as the girls'. One of the most striking features 
about the award of these benefices is the very large propor- 
tion of holders found in families whose salaries are paid en- 
tirely from state funds.^ Although composing a relatively 
small proportion of the total population of the coimtry, for 
the last two years at least they have been receiving about 
sixty per cent of all the scholarships in the secondary 
schools, and this entirely apart from the remission of fees 
previously indicated as granted to children of parents in tlie 
teaching service of the State. 

There are, furthermore, graduate honor scholarships (fifty 
in the Paris lycdes and a few more in the most important 
departmental lyc^es) awarded to distinguished pupils of the 
smaller schools, already in possession of the bachelor's de- 
gree, who wish to go to the larger lyc^es to prepare for the 
higher government schools. The selection of these honor 
pupils is made by the head masters, but their choice is re- 
stricted to the holders of state scholarships. 

The school year in France is a long one, extending from 
the first of October until the first of August, broken by only 
one long vacation, nearly two weeks at Easter. 
This marks the end of the second trimester of holidays and 

*^cations. 

the year, and after that the fellows that are 
facing the baccalaureate or a competitive examination at 
the end of the year settle down for the final struggle. For 
the other pupils, the last third is rather easier than the first 
two, and there is usually considerable opportunity for review 
and clearing up of the work of the year. There are of 
course no classes on Sunday, although the boarding pupils 
have a regular study period on Sunday morning. Oppor- 
tunity is granted for church attendance if the parents or 
children so desire, but after they have passed their first 
communion the number that embrace this opportunity is 
practically a negligible quantity, Thursday is the regular sec- 
ular holiday. In the morning, the pupils in the first cycle and 

^ See Appendix I for occupations of parents of scholarship holders 
appointed in 1906-7. 

12 



178 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

below are free from all regular school work, save for the 
luckless youngster sentenced to pay the penalty for exer- 
cising too much initiative from the conduct point of view, 
or too little enterprise from the intellectual point of view. 
For the pupils in the second cycle often, and for the can- 
didates preparing for the higher government schools always, 
Thursday morning is as full of class work as any other day. 
In fact some of these latter fellows are going at such a pace 
that it is a wonder they have any time to assimilate the 
work they are doing. Some of the prospective engineering 
students have thirty-four, thirty-five, and thirty-six hours of 
class work per week. The press of work with them cer- 
tainly must be fearful. 

On Thursday afternoon, all class work is suspended, and 
the boarding pupils have their regular supervised promenade. 
This is a most formal occasion when the boys in their blue 
uniforms march about in solemn procession indulging in 
nothing more frivolous than a subdued conversation. Some- 
times they go for a walk in the country, sometimes they are 
conducted to a neighboring museum, but they never escape 
the watchful eye of the censor or his duly authorized repre- 
sentative. Some head masters are liberal enough to allow 
their pupils to play a game of football at this time, and a 
very, very few so far depart from hoar}^ tradition as to allow 
their boys to go off by twos or threes and trust them to re- 
turn at the appointed hour. But woe unto the master if by 
any chance an accident should happen to one of the pupils 
during this half holiday ! Aside from the Easter vacation 
there is no class work on the regular legal holidays : All 
Saints' Day, Christmas, New Year's, Pentecost, Ascension 
Day, and July 14th, the national holiday. The rector may 
designate not more than eight special supplementary holi- 
days in the course of the year. These are ordinarily used up 
in a few extra days at New Year's and at Easter. One 
misses the regular Christmas vacation, so dear to the Ameri- 
can and English schoolboy, but in France the holiday season 
is connected with New Year's rather than Christmas. This 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 179 

program gives a school year of about one hundred and 
ninety-five days, or slightly in excess of the figures for 
American cities of over eight thousand inhabitants.^ 

In France, during the past few years, there has been a 
movement on foot to increase the length of the long vaca- 
tion. While nominally leaving the dates of the beginning 
and ending of the vacation unchanged the professors could 
be required to cover the subjects required by the program 
before July 14th, and the parents might then be authorized 
to withdraw their children at that date. A motion to this 
effect passed the lower house more than four years ago,^ and 
it is likely to be put into effect before long. 

Although the life is not so severe as it was in the Middle 
Ages when the classes gathered in the old rue du Fouarre as 
early as half past four in the morning, yet even 
to-day everybody in a French lycde gets an ProarJm. 
early start.^ Eising comes in summer at five 
o'clock, or at the latest half past five, and in winter half an 
hour later. I have even found schools where the candidates 
for the higher schools as the time for the competitive exam- 
inations drew near were out of bed as much as an hour 
earlier and hard at work over their books. The worst feat- 
ure about this early rising is the long work period on an 
empty stomach, but even the regulation time is long, and 
there is always a study period of at least a full hour before 
breakfast. The breakfast, which comes at seven or quarter 
past, is the typical French frugal first breakfast — a cup of 
coffee (sometimes chocolate) and bread, with butter occa- 
sionally. This latter is a luxury afforded only by some of 
the largest schools. After breakfast comes the first recrea- 
tion period of the day which lasts until the beginning of the 
morning class at eight o'clock. The program for the little 

1 Average length of school term in American cities of over eight thousand 
inhabitants, 189.3 days. Hep. Com. Ed., 1908, I., p. 417. 

2 Annuaire de la jeunesse, 1907, p. 217. 

' See Appendix H for daily programs at Lycee Louis-le-Grand in 1769 and 
1874. 



180 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

fellows in the elementary classes usually runs about half an 
hour behind this of the older boys. 

Between bedtime the night before and the beginniug of 
the after breakfast recreation period, at which moment they 
are turned over to the general surveHlants, the boys have 
been in charge of the dormitory surveillants. These latter, 
often little older than the upper form boys themselves, sleep 
in the dormitories, watch over the pupils during their morn- 
ing ablutions, conduct them to the stud}^ room, supervise 
them during the first study period and during the break- 
fast. The dormitory surveillants, barring the fact that they 
ordinarily have to divide the supervision during the midday 
meal, are free from breakfast time until the evening meal. 

Eight o'clock sees every boy in the school hard at work 
in his class room, — that is, if his teacher has arrived ; other- 
wise the class stands waiting outside the door, for nobody 
would think of entering, even if the door were open, without 
direction from the teacher. The ordinary situation of the 
class rooms on the ground floor around a big open court makes 
this a simple matter ; then the censor or the general surveil- 
lants can tell at a glance if any teacher has not appeared, 
and provision may thus be made for taking care of the class. 
In the larger schools, where the number of pupils justifies 
more than one section of a given class, the boarding pupils 
are kept by themselves, or at least are joiaed with the half 
boarders, while the externes are set off in another group. The 
dilatory fellow has an uncomfortable time of it. He must 
seek a written order from the censor before being allowed to 
join his class. The first offence is not very severely dealt 
with, especially if it is a question of two or three minutes, 
but old offenders are shown little consideration, and it usu- 
ally means an hour or more of work at school on a half- 
holiday. 

Nine o'clock marks the end of the first period, and the 
boys swarm out into the courts for a five-minute recreation. 
With the little fellows this is ordinarily stretched to ten 
minutes, and they chase each other about the playground as 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 181 

a lot of American boys would do, but the youngsters that 
have reached the dignity of the sixth form take their pleas- 
ure in a much milder fashion. French classmates of twelve 
or thirteen and upward greet each other in the morning 
with as grave a handshake as though they were men grown. 
The older boys march sedately about the court by twos 
and threes or stand in small groups conversing quietly 
together. 

At the end of this short intermission period they are back 
in their same class rooms again with the same teacher as 
before. Until the reform of 1902 the regular duration of a 
"class" was two hours, and the present program has simply 
cut five or ten minutes out of the middle for a breathing 
spell. The distribution of subjects makes such an arrange- 
ment very easy, for one teacher has all the Greek, Latin, and 
French in a given form, another the history and geography, 
another the mathematics, and another the physical sciences 
(which always include chemistry). Thus the first hour may 
be devoted to Latin and the second to French, the first to 
history and the second to geography. The two morning 
hours from eight to ten, and the two afternoon hours from 
two to four, or from half past two until half past four, are 
regularly occupied in this manner. At ten o'clock there is a 
fifteen-minute recreation period. The third morning hour, 
and in the large schools where the program is much con- 
gested, the first afternoon period from half past one to half 
past two are devoted to single-hour subjects like modern 
languages, arithmetic in the lower forms, natural science, 
and laboratory work. 

At the close of the morning class work, the ordinary day 
pupils go to their homes, not to return again until their first 
afternoon lesson. All the others gather in their respective 
study rooms, where they work under the charge of the tutors 
{rejpetiteurs) until luncheon time. These study rooms are 
no whit different from ordinary class rooms save for the row 
of book lockers around the walls. In some of the city schools 
the advanced mathematics students are fortunate enough to 



182 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

possess a good-sized table and an individual bit of black- 
board for scratch work. In these upper study rooms the 
tutor is little more than a monitor, but with the smaller boys 
he is a real tutor, looking after them carefully to see that 
their tasks are completed, helpiag them when they are in 
difficulty, and even hearing their memory work. In some 
respects this relieves the regular teacher of much of the 
drudgery and allows him to spend more of his time in teach- 
ing, for he has to concern himself with the memory work of 
the ordinary day pupils only. 

Luncheon or dinner time, as the case may be, which comes 
at noon or half past twelve, sees the supervised day pupils 
away, and only the boarders and the half boarders are left. 
This midday meal is the first hearty repast of the day, con- 
sisting usually of an hors d'oeuvre, a meat course, a vegetable, 
cheese or dessert, with a bottle of wine^ for every four boys, 
and as much bread as they want to eat.^ The marble top 
tables (a tablecloth is an almost unheard-of luxury), together 
with the tiled floors, give the refectories a bare and cheerless 
look that is far from homelike. About the only redeeming 
feature in the general appearance of these dining rooms is 
the scrupulous cleanliness that universally prevails. A few 
years ago tliere were many complaints about the character of 
the board furnished at some of the lyc^es and colleges, but 
to-day I believe it is everywhere above reproach. 

Between the end of luncheon and half past one is one of 
the chief recreation periods of the day. At this time, as well 
as during the other recreation hour after the afternoon classes, 
the parents of the boarding pupils may call and see their 
children in the school parlor. This is a real play period for 
everybody. The older boys are often playing tennis or 
handball (wall-ball, as the French call it), and the younger 
ones divert themselves with a kind of old-fashioned scrub 
football, tag, marbles, or the various purposeless romp- 

1 In the extreme North this wine is replaced by beer, and in the West by 
cider, according to the drink of the country. 

2 For a specimen menu see Appendix J. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 183 

ings tliat serve to amuse the children of every country and 
clime. 

There are two hours of regular class work in the afternoon ; 
then a hasty luncheon, ordinarily of bread and fruit, at four 
o'clock. At this time comes the principal recreation of the 
day. Extra lessons, such as those on the piano or other 
musical instruments, gymnastics, dancing, boxing, fencing, 
and riding, must all be taken during these recreation periods. 
After this the older boys have three hours of study, some- 
times straightaway and sometimes broken by an hour for 
dinner. The evening meal comes at seven or eight, accord- 
ing to the circumstances just indicated, and by nine o'clock, 
or half past at the latest, everybody is in bed. 

It has been a hard day, and at least from the American 
point of view an inordinately long one, but it is somewhat 
easier than it used to be. In 1890, the Minister of Public 
Instruction cut down the working school day by fixing the 
maximum number of hours of sedentary labor at six for the 
primary and elementary divisions, at eight for the grammar 
division, and at ten or ten and a half for the upper classes 
of the secondary course. At the same time he regretted his 
inability to fix any similar limits for the pupils preparing 
for the higher government schools. "The average day of 
the schoolboy then," he went on to say, " will vary between 
fourteen and sixteen hours, the rest of the time being 
devoted to physical exercises, to recreations, to meals, 
etc."i 

This is the regular program for every day except Thurs- 
day and Sunday. On the morning of the former the smaller 
boys have a fairly free half holiday, that is, barring the fact 
that they have some lesson to make up or some punishment 
to work off, while for the three upper forms and for all the 
candidates for the higher government schools the program 
goes on just as before. In the afternoon, all the boarding 
pupils go out for a long walk under the direction of the 
censor or his assistants. Sunday afternoon is spent in a 

J Circ, July 7, 1890, Bee. des rhg., p, 716. 



184 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

similar fashion unless the boy is fortunate enough to escape 
entirely from the restrictions of the school life and spend 
the day with his family or his friends. 

Wlien the boy first enters the lyc^e, he is assigned a 

number which conceals his identity in practically all his 

relations with the school outside the class 

Nature of the .^^ , • j.- ^^ -.i • j. • 

School Life, ^oom until his connection therewith is termi- 
nated. His caps, his clothes, his bed, his wash 
basin, his napkin ring, in fact everything he has or uses is 
marked with this number. He has absolutely no privacy 
any more than if he were a common soldier living in 
barracks. There is no place he can call his own, and he can 
never be by himself. He is in the dormitory, the refectory, 
the study room, the class room, or on the playground, and 
in any case he is surrounded by fifteen or twenty others. 
This whole system forces the boy to live a collective rather 
than an individual life, which savors strongly of the orphan 
asylum if not of the penitentiary, or, to use a more euphe- 
mistic word which the French critics prefer, of the 
barracks.! The time is practically all planned out for him 
from ten o'clock on Sunday night until eight o'clock on 
the following Sunday morning. He rises by the clock, 
he washes by the clock, he eats by the clock, he studies 
by the clock, he plays by the clock, he goes to bed by 
the clock. It would be interesting to know what would 
happen if he could not sleep by the clock. His incomings 
and his outgoings take place only at stated times and 
at fixed intervals, always near the watchful eye of some 
mentor. As long as he is within the school, he is practi- 
cally cut off from all contact with the outside world. There 
are no newspapers for him to read ; his mail is all minutely 
scrutinized to make sure that it bears the signature of parent 
or recognized correspondent ; and it is a serious breach 
of the regulations if one of his fellow pupils is detected 
in performing any commission for him on the outside. 
In fact he has little or no money to spend even if he could 

1 See also Demolins, A quoi tient la snp&riorit4 des Anglo-Saxons, p. 7. 



THE SCHOOL AND ITS LIFE 185 

persuade one of his classmates to violate the rules for 
him, for his parents make a deposit with the bursar and give 
that official directions as to the amount of his advances 
to the boys. The authorities request that this allowance 
shall not exceed two francs per week, and the gate-keeper's 
supply of sweets provides ample opportunity for the expend- 
iture of this meagre pocket money. He has no time that 
he can call his own, and consequently he is not encouraged 
or even allowed to plan out his work for himself. So 
far as my observations and inquiries go there is an entire 
absence of all that training to fit a young man to meet 
situations, to handle his fellows, that the athletic activities 
and the freer atmosphere of our own institutions do so much 
to encourage. The very great majority of secondary school 
men believe that they cannot safely grant their boys 
any more liberties, and the small minority of head masters 
that hold other views and would like to give their boys 
more freedom are restrained by peculiar conditions. In 
other words, in case of accident while the boy is under 
the jurisdiction of the school authorities, whether on the 
playground or on an excursion, the State is liable for 
damages. If no school officer happened to be present, 
the head master himself may be sued for negligence in this 
respect. During the past twenty years the increasing 
activity of numerous unscrupulous lawyers in pushing such 
cases upon contingent fees has gone far to make the masters 
perhaps over cautious, and has seriously retarded the growth 
of any tendency toward reducing the strictness of the 
surveillance that might otherwise have been in evidence. 
The superior authority has thus far declined to relieve 
the masters of this responsibility ; hence the few instances 
where the pupils have any real freedom are all the more 
noticeable by their rarity. The life of the French secondary 
school is thus a most restricted and unreal sort of an 
existence where the absence of spontaneity and individuality 
commands a high premium. It is not surprising then to 
an Anglo-Saxon that when the French boy quits the lycde 



186 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

precincts and realizes that he is no longer bound by the 
restrictions of his school life, he has less self-control, 
less poise, less executive skill, and in general is less able 
to solve the problems he is called upon to face than are the 
English or American boys of the same age. 



CHAPTER IX 

FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 

At first sight it seems a bit strange to link the dead classics 
and the living French together, but it becomes perfectly- 
clear when we recall that the instruction in the mother 
tongue is invariably intrusted to the teacher of the classics, 
that is, of course, from the sixth form upward. Although 
this is unquestionably a relic of the old regime, and the 
vernacular has long had a place for itself among the recog- 
nized subjects of secondary study, occasionally one finds an 
echo of the past like the following: "I believe that the 
special study of the French language and literature ought not 
to figure in the program during the first two periods of sec- 
ondary instruction. . . . The mother tongue is the vehicle of 
all other subjects of instruction ; it is necessarily learned sim- 
ultaneously with them." ^ It is likewise worth noting that 
on the program in force at the time of the adoption of the 
present program in 1902, French was not assigned a special 
number of hours per week, but French and the classics re- 
ceived thirteen hours among them in each of the first three 
years of the secondary course proper and twelve in the next 
three. 

In the days of the early colleges, Latin was everything. 
Little else was taught and the few other subjects were all 
acquired through the Roman tongue. Scholars 
wrote it, scholars spoke it ; it was the medium of Lat^n'^ 
of diplomacy as well as of theological dispute ; 
it was the universal language of the literary world. What 

1 Maneuvriek, L' Education de la bourgeoisie sous la r6'publique, 3""^ ed., 
1888, p. 115. 



188 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

more natural than that it should monopolize the instruction 
in the schools that trained men for these professions ! ^ 
Nearly four hundred years after the founding of the imiver- 
sity, only a bold spirit dared attempt to teach in anything 
but this time-honored language. Under the Batio stu- 
dioruon of the Jesuits, no one of the classes had more than a 
half hour in the morning and an equal length of time in the 
afternoon for all the instruction in the mother tongue. The 
vernacular occupied relatively about the same proportion of 
the program of the Port-Koyalists, and hardly more in the 
university schools of the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- 
ries, so far as we can judge from RoUin. In the meantime 
the Greek had made but little headway. Resuscitated by 
the Renaissance, it was still regarded as a mark of culture 
rather than an indispensable tool. The Revolution swept 
away the university as well as the colleges that had sur- 
vived the expulsion of the Jesuits, and practically all the 
classical learning disappeared at the same time. The little 
that was left in the so-called Central Schools is hardly to be 
taken seriously. In re-establishing the secondary schools, 
Napoleon founded them on a basis of Latin and mathemat- 
ics : " Latin because it was customary ; mathematics be- 
cause he had been an artillery officer." ^ With the passing 
of Napoleon the Latin quite dispossessed its only serious 
rival and reassumed much of its former glory, so that one 
might truly have said according to popular ideas, " without 
Latin, there is no secondary instruction." This " popular 
notion " as expressing the inertia of tradition is undoubtedly 
largely responsible for the iniluence that Latin exerts even 
to-day. The modifications that have taken place from time 
to time show the efforts of the classicists to harmonize the 
force of this tradition with the needs of our modern society. 

1 The cash account of one M. Filley de la Barre, 1706-1728, throws 
some light on the preponderance of Latin instruction at the College Louis- 
le-Grand in the early part of the eighteenth century, at that time the most 
prominent of the Jesuit colleges, as well as upon the manners and customs 
of some of the younger students. See Appendix F. 

2 Frary, La question du latin, p. 45. 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 189 

We are becoming more and more convinced that questions 
of education and so of program depend upon something 
more substantial than sentiment and tradition. They are 
vitally and indissolubly embodied in the progress of society, 
in its material and intellectual cmd spiritual advancement. 
The old Latin was really the most intrinsically useful of 
subjects, for it was the passport for the church and the other 
professions, for a diplomatic career, or for polite society. 
With the evolution of our intellectual and industrial life 
it has lost nearly if not all of that characteristic.^ Intel- 
lectually its absolute value has remained constant, for time 
has brought no tarnish to the nobility of its thought or the 
beauty of its expression, but its recent loss of prestige is 
practically due to the recognition that its relative position 
has been considerably changed. The very close fundamen- 
tal relation between the French language and the Latin has 
been a potent factor in preventing the more rapid spread of 
this modifying tendency, and if it ever comes to a crisis will 
probably be powerful enough to save the latter. On this 
account the position of Latin must always be relatively 
stronger in France than in any of the Teutonic or the Anglo- 
Saxon countries. 

The day of Greek as an essential instrument of general 
culture has plainly passed in France, for whereas the former 
inequality of privilege, as far as further uni- 
versity professional study was concerned, that of Greek"^ 
existed between the old baccalaureates, practi- 
cally made Greek compulsory, the new program has changed 
all that. Indeed, Greek enthusiasts are relieved that they 
did not fare worse. As one of the leaders said : " The new 
programs have restricted the part given to Greek in second- 
ary work, but they finally recognized its right to live, and 
we can hope its existence will not be discussed, at least for 

1 Yet the question of Latin as the future international language was on 
the program for serious discussion at the Primo Congresso internazionale 
latino at Rome in the spring of 1903. 

Cf. also Andr:6, Dans quelle mesure se sert-on encore du latin ? In Eevue 
internationale de V enseignerrxnt, 1902, II., pp., 503-512. 



190 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

some time. " ^ Former classical scholars generally, unless 
their judgment is warped by prejudice or by their own close 
connection with its instruction at the present time, are free 
to admit that Greek is practically dead. Many are frank 
enough to recognize that the day is not far distant when the 
Greek will have disappeared entirely from the colleges and 
will be found only in the larger lyc^es. Indeed, I came 
across a reasonably important provincial lyc^e where only 
eight of the three hundred and twenty boys in the school 
were studying Greek, and the two boys in the beginning 
class this year had both begun the language in a private 
school and were continuing it here in order not to lose the 
time they had already spent upon it. Instances like the 
lyc^e at Dijon, where Greek still enjoys much of its former 
prestige, thanks in large measure to the personal influence 
and the good teaching of the professor in the beginning class, 
serve only to throw the ordinary situation into stronger 
relief. On the other hand, some teachers are rejoiced to 
find a decided improvement in the quality of their Greek 
pupils. This change for the better is not at all surprising, 
for now that Greek is an optional study it has been able 
to throw off that dead weight of pupils who took it with 
absolutely no interest in the subject matter, but merely be- 
cause they could not get a regular baccalaureate without it. 
In other words the avenue toward the most desirable govern- 
ment preferment led through the Greek gateway. 

A study of the new program suggests that the classi- 
cists may have sacrificed their deck load of Greek in order to 
save their cargo of Latin, although it might 
Efforts to save ^^^ ^^ ^ ^^ gj^^ ^^g ^j^q would admit this.2 

In tlie former program it was the classical 
course with both Latin and Greek vers7is the " modern " 
course without either of the ancient languages. The new 
program during the first cycle ostensibly offers the same 

1 Croiset, M. in Rcvuc inlcriialionalc cle V cnseignement, 1903, II., 
p. 19. 

2 Cf. also Lanson, L'universiU ci la soci6U modeme, p. 43. 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 191 

ctoice, but when we come to the fourth and third forms there 
are practically three options : (1) the old classical course ; (2) 
the old modern course, both with certain modifications ; and 
(3) the classical course without Greek. Here the three hours 
of Greek are replaced by two additional hours of the modern 
language already begun, and one hour of drawing. The last 
named course by implication would appear to be the normal 
division A course, for according to the official program, 
" the pupils who take Greek will be relieved from three hours 
of class work, two taken from the time assigned to modern 
languages and one from drawing." While the old program 
offered a perfectly free choice between the classical and the 
modern courses, the lack of official sanction offered the latter, 
by which the holders of its baccalaureate were eliminated 
from the bar and many other walks of professional life, 
forced practically all except the prospective engineers to 
select the traditional course with both Greek and Latin. 
The reform program has abolished this former inequality, 
as far as official regulations can do so, by placing both bacca- 
laureates upon the same footing with reference to undertak- 
ing future professional careers, or rather by establishing only 
one baccalaureate with mention of philosophy or math- 
ematics, together with whichever of the four sections they 
came under at the first part of their examination. But 
whereas under the old dispensation there was but a single 
course that led to the baccalaureate, under the present 
conditions there are four, with Latin as one of the important 
subjects in three out of the four courses. It is interesting 
to learn, moreover, that when Greek has to stand on its own 
merits, so to speak, it no longer maintains its hold on the in- 
tellectual leaders of the class, for although the present form 
of examination in the old classical course is admittedly the 
easiest of the four in the first part of the baccalaureate, more 
than once I have found the strongest pupils in the class to 
be in the Latin-science section. 

Instruction in Latin which from time almost immemorial 
had been a part of the course in the elementary section of 



192 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the lyc^es and colleges was eliminated from the work of the 
lower classes by the program that went into effect in 1880, 
Latin and ^^^ since that time has been begun in the 
Greek in the sixth form. Five years later the single hour 
^ ' assigned to Latin and Greek was cut out 
of the philosophy form, and since that date it has conse- 
quently been found in the first six years of the secondary 
course, properly speaking, or according to the present class 
nomenclature, from the sixth to the first form inclusive. As 
has previously been indicated, the program of 1902 cut 
down the number of week hours for Latin in every form ex- 
cept the second. Beginning Greek, which was formerly found 
in the sixth form, was changed to the fourth form by the 
program of 1880, only to be pushed back three quarters of 
a year into the fifth form five years later, and again subse- 
quently restored to the fourth form. The present situation, 
therefore, in the classical course of the secondary school 
gives a boy six years of Latin and four of Greek with an 
optional year of each in the philosophy form. 

The following are the Latin, Greek, and French courses 
for the lyc^es and colleges in accordance with the present 
regulations : 

SIXTH FORM 

Latin, 7 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work 
from, Latin authors. (The reading and translation will form the prin- 
cipal part of the year's work.) Latin grammar. Latin composition, 
written and oral. Written translations (from the Latin). 

Programs of Instruction. Regular declensions and conjuga- 
tions. (Both these are begun simultaneously so as to introduce the 
pupils as soon as possible to the elements of the complete sentence.) 

Short sight exercises of translation from French to Latin and from 
Latin to French. (The teacher will read slowly a sentence in French or 
in Latin wherein all the words are known, and have the pupils translate 
it orally or in writing.) 

Authors. Selection of easy graded texts. Epitome Historiae graecae 
(simple, graded edition). Viri Romae (2d semester). 

French, 3 hours. Division A. Reading and interpretation of, and 
memory work from, French authors. Grammar, sj^ntax, language work, 
and spelling. Simple oral and written composition. (Rules are to be 
taught chiefly by use. The teacher will let no opportunity slip to re-- 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 193 

mind the pupils that they should learn the rules instinctively. Hence 
he will constantly base his instruction on the examples drawn from the 
written or spoken language of the pupils. The object of grammatical 
study is to formulate in precise statements the rules drawn from ex- 
perience.) 

Authors.' Selections from the prose and verse of the French classics. 
Selected stories of the prose writers and the poets of the Middle Ages 
put in modern French. La Fontaine, Fables (first six books). Fenelon, 
Telemaque. Buffon, selected descriptions. Selections from nineteenth 
century poets. 

French, 5 hours. Division B. [Program similar to that above. 
This being the non-classical division more emphasis is put upon the 
grammar. Also considerably more memory work.] ^ 

Authors.' Reading, explanation, and memory work. [The same 
list of authors as above, with the addition of stories from the prose 
writers of the nineteenth century.] 

FIFTH FORM 

Latin, 7 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work 
from, Latin authors. (The reading and translation will form the prin- 
cipal part of the year's work.) Latin grammar, Latin composition, 
written and oral. Written translations (from the Latin). 

Program of Instruction. Review of the grammar. Regular and 
irregular declensions and conjugations. First principles of syntax, 
agreement; principal uses of the cases; complements; principal and 
subordinate clauses. 

Arrangement of words by families. Root words, derivatives, and 
words in composition. 

Sight translation from French to Latin. 

Reading and translation of authors, at sight or prepared. 

Comparison of the Latin and the French construction based upon 
examples taken from the texts read. 

Reproduction from memory of selections read and translated in the 
class. 

Authors. Viri Romae (1st semester). Historical selections from 
secular history. Nepos (2d semester). Phaedrus, selected fables (2d 
semester). Justin, extracts. 

FIFTH FORM 

French, 3 hours. Division A. [Program similar to that of the 
sixth form above.] 

Authors.' Selections from the prose and verse of the French classics. 
Selected stories from the prose writers and the poets of the Middle Ages, 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained, in class. 

2 The [ ] indicate the author's summary of the ofScial text. 

13 



194 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

put in modern French. Selected scenes from Corneille and Moliere. 
Racine, Esther. La Fontaine, Fables (first six books). Fenelon, Tele- 
maque. Buffon, selected descriptions. Stories from the prose writers 
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Lesage, Voltaire, etc.). 
Selections from the nineteenth century poets. 

French, 5 hours. Division B. [Program similar to that of Division 
A above, with added mention of outside reading upon which pupils are 
to be examined in class.] 

AuTHOKS.' Reading, explanation, and memory work. Selections 
from the prose and verse of the French classics. Chanson de Roland, 
put in modern French. La Fontaine, Fables (last six books). Boileau, 
Selections from the Satires, and Le Lutrin. Racine, Esther. Fenelon, 
Telemaque. Selections from the poets of the nineteenth century. Stories 
from the prose writers of the nineteenth century. 



FOURTH FORM 

Latin, 6 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work from, 
Latin authors. (The reading and translation will form the principal 
part of the year's work.) Latin grammar, Latin composition, written 
and oral. Written translations (from the Latin). 

Program of Instruction. Review of the grammar. More detailed 
study of syntax. 

Reading and translation of authors. Comparison of the Latin and 
the French construction based upon examples taken from the texts read. 
Oral exercises on vocabulary. 

Prosody and versification ; hexameter and pentameter, scansion, and 
recasting in metrical form.^ 

Authors. Nepos (1st semester). Caesar, Gallic War. Cicero, De 
Senectute. Curtius. Virgil, ^neid (Books I, II, III). 0^^d, Meta- 
morphoses (selections). Ethical selections from Latin authors. 



FOURTH FORM 

Greek, 3 hours (optional). Greek grammar. Written and oral 
exercises. 

Program of Instruction. Declensions (articles, nouns, adjec- 
tives, pronouns) and conjugations (verbs in a, contract verbs, verbs 
in fii, common irregular verbs). Invariable words. Elements of syntax. 

Authors. Chrestomathy. ^sop. Fables. Lucian, extracts from 
Dialogues of the Dead, Dialogues of the Gods, True History. 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained in class. 

2 The teacher will select a number of ver-ses in one of these familiar meters 
and transpose the words into the prose order. The pupils are then required 
to turn this back so as to give a correct metrical version. 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 195 



FOURTH FORM 

French, 3 hours. Division A. Reading and interpretation of, and 
memory work from, French authors. (Outside reading upon which the 
pupils are examined in class.) Review of French grammar. Elementary 
principles of versification in connection with the texts read. Exercises 
in versification. Language work and spelling. Simple compositions. 
(From time to time the teacher will touch upon the questions of histori- 
cal grammar that seem to be required by the texts read. This is in no 
sense to be a course in that subject, and the questions are to be treated 
only when they will make the present day language more intelligible.) 

Authors.' Selections from the prose and verse of the French classics. 
Selected scenes from Corneille and Moliere. Racine, Athalie. La Fon- 
taine, Fables (last six books). Boileau, Le Lutrin. Fenelon, selected 
dialogues and fables. Voltaire, Charles XII. , Sibde de Louis XIV. 
Portraits and stories from the memoirs of the seventeenth and eigh- 
teenth centuries. Chateaubriand, stories, scenes, and sketches. Mi- 
chelet, historical extracts. Selections from nineteenth century poets. 

French, 5 hours. Division B. [Program similar to that of Divi- 
sion A above, except the attention devoted to versification.] 

Authors.' Reading, explanation, and memory work. Selections 
from the prose and verse of the French classics. Corneille, Le Cid. 
Moliere, L'Avare. Racine, Athalie, Les Plaideurs. Voltaire, Charles 
XII. Michelet, historical extracts. Stories from the prose writers of 
the eighteenth century. Selections from the poets of the nineteenth 
century. 

THIRD FORM 

Latin, 6 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work 
from, Latin authors. (The reading and translation will form the prin- 
cipal part of the year's work. Furthermore the pupils will be required 
to do outside reading upon wliich they will be examined in class.) Re- 
view of the grammar. Written translations (from the Latin). Latin 
composition. Prosody and versification; hexameter and pentameter, 
scansion, and recasting in metrical form.^ (Beginning with this class, a 
summary of the history of Latin literature will be put into the hands of 
the pupils.) 

Authors. Narration (selection of stories taken chiefly from Livy). 
Cicero, Against Catiline, Archias. Sallust. Latin Theatre, extracts, 
Virgil, Georgics, ^neid (Books IV-VIII). Latin anthology (except 
the works on the regular program). Ethical selections from Latin 
authors. 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained in class. 

2 See note under Fourth Form Latin, p. 194. 



196 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



THIRD FORM 

Greek, 3 hours (optional). Reading and translation of, and mem- 
ory work from, Greek authors. Grammar reviewed and continued. 
Written translations (from the Greek). Greek composition. 

Authors. Lucian, extracts from Lucian's Dream, Timon, Menip- 
pus, Charon. Xenophon, extracts from Cyropaedia, Anabasis. Herod- 
otus, extracts. Ethical selections from Greek authors. 



THIRD FORM 

French, 3 hours. Division A. Reading and interpretation of, and 
memory work from, French authors. [Outside reading and liistorical 
grammar as in the fourth form above.] Compositions. (Beginning with 
this class a sketch of the history of French literature will be put into 
the hands of the pupils.) 

Authors. 1 Selections from the prose writers and the poets of the 
sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Portraits 
and stories from the sixteenth century prose writers. Selected plays 
from Corneille, Moliere, and Racine. Boileau, Satires and Epitres. 
Selected letters from the seventeenth and the eighteenth century writers. 
Poetical masterpieces of Lamartine and Victor Hugo. Chateaubriand, 
stories, scenes, and sketches. Michelet, historical extracts. 

French, 4 hours. Division B. Reading, explanation, and memory 
work. (The outside reading for this section is chiefly taken from the 
French translations of the classical and modern masterpieces.) Reading 
and quizzes intended to acquaint the pupils with the great epochs in 
French literature. (Beginning with this class a sketch of the history 
of French literature will be put into the hands of the pupils.) Com- 
positions. 

Authors.* Reading, explanation, and memory work. Selections 
from the prose and verse of the French classics. Corneille, Horace, 
Cinna. Racine, Britannicus, Iphigenie. Moliere, Le Bourgeois Gentil- 
homme, Les Femmes Savayites. Bossuet, Oraisons funkhres. Chateau- 
briand, stories, scenes, and sketches. Victor Hugo, selected poems. 
Stories from the seventeenth and eighteenth century writers. Selected 
scenes from the comedies of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. 

SECOND FORM 

Latin, 4 hours. (Program common to Sections A, B, and C.) 
Reading and translation of, and memory work from, Latin authors. 
(The reading and translation ^vill form the principal part of the year's 
work. Furthermore, the pupils will be required to do outside reading 
upon which they will be examined in class.) Latin composition, and 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained iu class. 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 197 

elementary exercises in original Latin writing. Reading, and quizzes 
intended to acquaint the pupils with the chief Latin writers. (Begin- 
ning with this class a more complete grammar will be put into the hands 
of the pupils.) 

Authors. Cicero, De Suppliciis, De Signis, Scipio's Dream. Livy, 
a book of the third decade. Tacitus, Agricola, Germanicus. Pliny the 
Younger, Selected Letters. Latin Theatre, extracts. Virgil, Mneid 
(Books IX-XII), Bucolics. Horace, Odes. Latin anthology (except 
works on the regular program). Ethical selections from Latin authors. 



SECOND FORM 

Greek, 5 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work from, 
Greek authors. Review of the grammar. Written translation (from 
the Greek). Greek composition. Reading and quizzes intended to ac- 
quaint the pupils with the chief Greek writers. (Beginning with this 
class, a summary of the history of Greek literature and a more complete 
grammar will be put into the hands of the pupils.) 

Authors. Homer, Iliad, Odyssey. Xenophon, (Economics. Plato, 
Apology, Crito, lo. Plutarch, extracts from the Lives (Alexander and 
Caesar, Demosthenes and Cicero, Alcibiades and Coriolanus, Pericles 
and Fabius Maximus). Euripides, a tragedy (chosen from the two 
Iphigenia, Alcestes, Hecuba, Hippolytiis, Medea). Ethical selections 
from Greek authors. 

SECOND FORM 

French, 3 hours. (Program common to sections A, B, and C.) 
Reading and explanation of, and memory work from, French authors. 
(Outside reading upon which the pupils will" be examined in class.) 
Compositions. Reading and quizzes intended to acquaint the pupils 
with the principal writers up to the end of the sixteenth century. 
(Beginning with this class a more technical grammar will be put into 
the hands of the pupils.) 

Authors.' Selections from the prose writers and the poets of the 
sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Chanson 
de Roland. Extracts from Villehardouin, Joinville, Froissart, and 
Comines. Chrestomathy of the Middle Ages. Montaigne, principal 
chapters, and extracts. Political masterpieces of Marot, Mansard, du 
Bellay, d'Aubigne, Regnier. Selected plays from Corneille, Moliere, 
and Racine. La Fontaine, Fables. Boileau, Satires and Epttres. Bos- 
suet, Oraisons fun^bres. La Bruyere, Caracthes. Selected letters of the 
seventeenth and the eighteenth century. Readings on the society of 
the seventeenth century from memoirs and correspondence. Selections . 
from Rousseau. Political masterpieces of Lamartine and Victor Hugo. 
Selections from the principal historians of the nineteenth century, 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained in class. 



198 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

French, 3 hours. Section D. [Aside from the fact that the sketch 
of French literature covers the writers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
eighteenth centuries, and that the list of authors is considerably more 
limited, the work is very similar to that done in the other three sections.] 



FIRST FORM 

Latin, 3 hours. (Program common to sections A, B, and C.) 
Reading and translation of, and memory work from, Latin authors. 
(The reading and translation will form the principal part of the year's 
work. Furthermore, the pupils vdW be required to do outside reading 
upon which they will be examined in class.) Written translations (from 
the Latin). Latin composition and exercises in original Latin writing. 
Reading and quizzes intended to acquaint the pupils with the chief 
Latin writers. 

Authors. Cicero, selected letters. Pro Milone, Pro Murena. Ex- 
tracts from and analysis of the principal speeches. Extracts from his 
ethical and pliilosophical writings. Extracts from his treatise on rhet- 
oric. Great addresses (chosen chiefly from Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus). 
Livy, a book of the third decade. Seneca, extracts from the Letters to 
Lucilius, and liis ethical writings. Tacitus, Annals, History, Dialogues 
on Orators. Latin Theatre, extracts. Lucretius, extracts. Virgil. 
Horace, Satires and Epistles. Latin anthology (except works on the 
regular program). Ethical selections from Latin authors. 

Extra work. Latin, 2 hours (required in Section A, optional in Sec- 
tion B). 

FIRST FORM 

Greek, 5 hours. Reading and translation of, and memory work 
from, Greek authors. Written translation (from Greek). Greek com- 
position. 

Authors. Xenophon, Memorabilia. Plato, extracts. Demos- 
thenes, Philippics, On the Crown. Attic orators, extracts from : Lysias, 
Isocrates, ^Eschines, Hyperides. Homer, Iliad, Odyssey. Extracts 
from iEschylus and Aristophanes. A tragedy each from Sophocles and 
Euripides. Greek anthology (except works on the regular program). 
Ethical selections from Greek authors. 



FIRST FORM 

French, 3 hours. (Program common to Sections A, B, and C.) 
[Similar to that for the second form, save that the principal writers cov- 
ered extend from the seventeenth century to the end of the first half of 
the nineteenth.] 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 199 

Authors.^ Selections from the prose writers and the poets of the six- 
teenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Montaigne, 
principal chapters and extracts. Selected plays from Corneille, Moliere, 
and Racine. La Fontaine, Fables. Boileau, Epttres, Satires, Art poe- 
tique, extracts from prose works. Pascal, Pensees, Provinciales (I, IV, 
XIII, and extracts). Bossuet, Oraisons funhhres, Sermons choisis, ex- 
tracts from his various writings. La Bruyere, Caracteres. Fenelon, 
Lettre a V Academie, extracts from his other works. Selected letters 
from the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. Montesquieu, Con- 
siderations sur les causes de la grandeur des Bomains el de leur decadence. 
Extracts from L'Esprit des lois, and his other works. Buffon, ex- 
tracts. Voltaire, extracts from his historical writings and from his 
other prose works. Diderot, extracts. Rousseau, selections, Lettre a 
d'Alembert sur les spectacles. Readings on the society of the eighteenth 
century from memoirs and correspondence. Political masterpieces of 
Lamartine and Victor Hugo. Selections from the ethical writers of the 
seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Selections from the 
principal historians of the nineteenth century. 

French, 3 hours. Section D. [Aside from the fact that the sketch 
of French literature is confined to the nineteenth century writers and 
that the list of authors is considerably more limited (orators and politi- 
cal writers since the Revolution, and the principal scientists have been 
added), the work is very similar to that done in the other three sections.] 

PHILOSOPHY FORM 

Latin and Greek, 4 hours (optional) Section A. Latin, 2 hours 
(optional) Section B. The authors of the first form program. 
Cicero, extracts from his rhetorical treatises. Lucan, extracts. Thu- 
cydides, extracts. Aristotle, extracts from the Rhetoric and the Poetics. 
Theocritus, selected Idyls. 

In the graduate forms there is no outlined program nor 
even a suggested list of authors. The professor chooses from 
the preceding course the authors that seem likely best to 
prepare his particular class for the competitive examination 
that lies before them. 

In examining this classical program, perhaps the first thing 
that strikes our attention is the very large amount of time it 
requires, amounting to between thirty-five and rpj^^^g 
thirty-nine hours of Latin and eighteen hours Allowance 
of Greek, and this, too, representing what is ^o^ Classics. 
looked upon to-day as an almost " irreducible minimum." 

1 The teacher will choose from this list the matter to be explained in class. 



200 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

There is very general complaint among the teachers that the 
time for Latin is far too short. Even assuming that the 
French secondary school course covers at least the freshman 
year work in our best colleges, the number of hours still 
appears inordinately large. Taking the recommendations of 
the Eeport of the Committee of Ten as the basis of compari- 
son, and assuming that the Latin of the first year of college 
amounts to three periods per week, we still find that the 
Latin program of the French schools occupies nearly twice 
as many periods as the American program which we have 
assumed to be reasonably comparable. On considering fur- 
ther that in America the time unit is ordinarily not over 
three quarters of an hour, while in France it is nominally 
sixty minutes (though in practice this is usually cut down 
about five minutes), the relative difference is still further 
increased. On the same basis, the Greek in the French 
schools with its sixteen or eighteen periods during the course 
likewise receives far more attention than we grant it. 
Looked at from another point of view, namely, the amount 
of time spent upon the classics as compared to the total 
length of the secondary course, there is considerably more 
similarity, for in the two countries the classics occupy about 
one third of all the time, the proportion being somewhat 
greater with us than it is abroad. 

The amount of time devoted to classical study in the 

French schools makes it possible to read the large number 

of authors, especially in Latin, that we find on 

^|7^^f!^^ °^ their programs. There are many works and 
'^ ' " even some authors that are nothing more than 
names to most of our students who do not carrj- on their 
classical studies beyond the first year in college. With the one- 
course Latin diet that prevails in most of our American high 
school classes, it is not surprising that few of our students 
gain any adequate ideas of the development of the Latin 
literature. I had not even a word of explanation to offer 
when one teacher smilingly referred to Caesar as our Latin 
" daily bread." Every classical class in the French schools 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 201 

in general is studying at least two authors simultaneously, 
and after the second year both prose and poetry are repre- 
sented. For example, the fourth form class (the third year 
of Latin) starts the year with Nepos, follows it with three 
books of the j^neid and some books of Csesar running con- 
jointly, and completes the year with De Senectute and selec- 
tions from the Metamorphoses, contriving to work in a little 
Curtius and some extracts from purely ethical and moral 
subjects. The following third form scheme of work will give 
a clearer idea of the weekly distribution of time : 

Tuesday, 3.30-4.30 p. m. Memory work; dictation of the text for the 

Latin to French translation; reading and translation. 
Wednesday, 9.00-10.00 a. m. Memory work; correction of the Latin 
to French translation. 
3.30-4.30 p. M. Grammatical review and prosody. 
Friday, 2.30-3.30 p. m. Memory work; dictation of the text for the 

French to Latin translation; reading and translation. 
Saturday, 8.00-9.00 a. m. Memory work; reading and translation. 
3.30-4.30 p. m. Correction of the French to Latin translation. 

While this is a purely individual arrangement, for the 
official program merely states the amount of ground to be 
covered and does not attempt to specify how the time shall 
be apportioned, it may be taken as a fairly typical distribu- 
tion. At the beginning of the year, each professor submits 
some such weekly schedule to the head master of the school 
in order that the work of the pupils may be scattered over 
the whole week, and that they shall not be unduly crowded 
on a.nj one day. 

The methods in use in classical teaching, and in fact in all 
linguistic instruction, are strikingly different from our own. 
In the first place, one is impressed with the Method: 
emphasis placed upon memory work. The Memory 
weekly program quoted above makes some pro- °' * 

vision for this every day, and if the number of lines that I 
heard recited in that particular class is to be taken as a stand- 
ard (and I believe it may), those boys were learning about a 
hundred lines of Latin per week. The teacher of the same 



202 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

form in one of the provincial colleges in discussing this 
question of memory work said : " Yes, I believe in it thor- 
oughly. I have these boys thirteen or fourteen hours per 
week (including French and ethics) and they have one hun- 
dred and fifty lines to learn. If I had them more hours, 
they would have still more to commit to memory. The boys 
never object." It was after the close of the lesson, so the 
mild expressions of disagreement with the last remark on 
the part of several boys gathered around, while not subver- 
sive of school discipline, showed a decided difference of 
opinion. The facility acquired by long practice, together 
with the fact that the Imes to be memorized are invariably 
carefully translated and explained in the class beforehand, 
makes it possible for the boys easily to learn the ten or 
twenty lines assigned for each lesson in about as many min- 
utes. Inasmuch as the French is always closely connected 
with the Latin in all this memory work, the practice cannot 
fail to give the pupils a great advantage in translating either 
from Latin to French or from French to Latin. It is an 
open question, however, if this emphasis upon committing to 
memory has not been carried too far. There are certain 
evidences, especially in the lower classes, that it has even 
trespassed on the domain of subjects like history and mathe- 
matics, where it should play a decidedly subordinate role. 

For one who has been accustomed to the modern pronunci- 
ation of Latin as found in the United States to-day, it is at 
first almost impossible to follow the class work 
in France. The old Erasmian method of pro- 
nunciation served as the point of departure, but except for 
the Eoman sound of e and the enunciation of the final con- 
sonants, the Latin is pronounced exactly as though it were 
French. The efforts to bring about a reform here have thus 
far failed to meet with any general sympathy, chiefly because 
the intimate relation between the Latiu and the French is one 
of the strong reasons for studying the ancient language, and 
with the reform pronunciation, not only would the pupils 
have to master a foreign pronunciation, but the aural assist- 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 203 

ance in discovering the relationship between the two lan- 
guages would be entirely eliminated. 

Latin prose is not looked upon as a kind of addendum or 
appendix that is merely attached to the outside of the regu- 
lar course, but it forms an integral part of the 
work. In fact, in the minds of the French com^oSion. 
teachers, these two are never dissociated. The 
teacher dictates the text to the class. The work is prepared 
outside, handed in, carefully read by the teacher and the 
errors noted, discussed at length in the class, and finally 
written correctly by each pupil in his note book. Through- 
out this whole process there is an amount of care and pains- 
taking that would astonish some of our American boys. There 
is unquestionably a great waste of time in dictating these 
texts, for one must reckon on ten to twenty minutes for 
each, and even with the reading and rereading mistakes are 
bound to crop out. It was consequently a great delight to 
find one or two teachers wide-awake enough to use some 
kind of a duplicating machine to prepare their texts for class 
use. Even the professor himself is compelled to keep a blank 
book for all the exercises of this kind he gives out, a regula- 
tion that certainly facilitates the work of the inspector when 
he makes his rounds. In the lower grades, the texts, like so 
many of our own, are mere translations from the Latin, but 
in the upper classes they are often chosen from the French 
classic writers. 

Just as in the German Gymnasium, considerable impor- 
tance is attached to written translations from Latin to the 
vernacular. They certainly call forth an ac- 
curacy and a nicety of rendition that is prac- Translations. 
tically impossible in oral work. The general 
method followed is similar to that just indicated for the 
Latin prose work. The same care is taken in correcting and 
rewriting, so that it may truly be said that this translation 
from the Latin is after all an exercise in French composition. 
In fact this correlation between Latin and French is every- 
where strongly evident, largely, probably, because the teacher 



204 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of Latin is always the teacher of French, and what he neg- 
lects in one class he will only have to correct in the next. 
This practice of teaching the mother tongue through the 
classics goes far toward helping the classical pupils make 
up the seven hours excess of French which the pupils of 
Division B have gained during the first cycle. 

Reading and translation, or as the French call it, explica- 
tion des textes, is treated entirely differently from what it is 
in America. In the first place, the class work 
is free from that " choppy " sort of recitation 
that is so common with us, for the French teacher makes no 
effort to get around the class in any single period. He calls 
on very few boys, often not more than half a dozen out of a 
class of twenty or thirty, but he manages to find out pretty 
accurately what each one really knows about the lesson in 
hand. I have never yet heard an absolute failure in a French 
class, nor have I ever heard a boy say, " I am not prepared." 
Probably both these situations occur, but they are at least 
reasonably rare. As the program already given will show, 
the first part of the period where translation occurs is 
taken up with memory work and dictation for outside 
written work, so that about two thirds of the time remain 
for the translation proper. A pupil is called upon to " explain 
the text." This falls into four stages : first, reading in Latin 
a whole sentence or perhaps the entire assignment that he 
will be called upon to render ; second, he rereads the Latin 
by natural groupings of the words (that is, subject and predi- 
cate if it is a simple sentence, the subject and its modifiers, a 
clause at a time, etc.), but in the order reqtcired hy the French 
idiom ; third, each of these groups of words is immediately 
turned literally into French ; and finally, the whole assign- 
ment is translated into good French. The second and third 
of these steps make up what the French call the " word for 
word " translation, really a sort of hybrid, for it is neither 
Latin nor French. This is a thoroughly artificial process and 
plainly a device of the translator which only emphasizes the 
bad habits that nine tenths of the people fall into who at- 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 205 

tempt to translate from one language to another, and tends 
to nullify all effort to induce the pupils to think in the foreign 
idiom. It would seem to be a confession of weakness thus 
to juggle with the order of the Latin phrases in order to 
make them intelligible in the mother tongue. To be sure, 
it eliminates numerous syntactical questions and explana- 
tions, for the teacher can discern immediately whether or 
not the pupil has grasped the meaning of the text ; and the 
rest of the class at the same time have most of their diffi- 
culties cleared up, but it must necessarily waste considerable 
time, for the method recognizes no differentiation of difficulty, 
and the same laborious and artificial treatment is expended 
upon the simple as upon the obscure. The movement for the 
suppression of this " word for word " translation is even now 
gathering headway,^ but much time and effort will be neces- 
sary to change such a deep-seated method of procedure. 
This is accompanied on the part of the teacher by a running 
comment and criticism, embracing questions of history, ge- 
ography, etymology, and style, which all serve to explain, 
illumine, and appreciate the text. The teacher sometimes 
monopolizes so much of the time in this commentary that it 
seems as though he were lecturing to the class rather than 
that the class were reciting to him. It is essentially a method 
of pouring in rather than of drawing out ; but it apparently 
characterizes the philosophy of education of the very great 
majority of the French teaching body. This whole method 
would fall far short of the mark were it not for the simplicity 
of all these explanations and the inseparable note book in 
the hands of the class. These comments are carefully jotted 
down by each individual pupil to be digested and absorbed 
before the next lesson. The general result is that time for 
time in his classical studies, the French boy covers just about 
as much ground as his American cousin, but on the whole he 
does his work more thoroughly and knows it better. 

1 Cf. recent articles in the Revue universitaire by Lavand, Une petite H- 
forme })6dagogique ; Comment rendre nos 6Uves plus fort en grec et en latin, 1904 ; 
Chabert, Simples notes sur la traduction ovale des textes latins, 1907. 



206 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Inasmuch as the Greek and the Latin are both handled 
by the same teachers, the general method followed in 
teaching these two languages is essentially 
the same. I was generally impressed, how- 
ever, by the carelessness of both teachers and pupils with 
regard to accent in pronunciation. One professor frankly 
said that as soon as he found his pupils could get along 
without the accents he no longer insisted on their mark- 
ing them in their written work, but it was quite impos- 
sible to discover what his standard of pronunciation was. 
In this same second form class, the text for the Greek 
composition was given out in Latin and the translation 
was to be made directly from one language to the other 
without utilizing the French as an intermediary, that is, 
without first translating the whole extract into the vernacular. 
The close relation between the teaching of the classics 
and the French has naturally influenced the instruction 
in the mother tongue to a marked degree, 

Growth of . p , s ■ 1 J.^ i- £ 

French. ^^ ^^^^> ^^® ^^7 f^-iriy say that tor many a 
generation the vernacular suffered under this 
baleful influence, for the dry method of teaching the dead 
classics was rigorously applied to the living French. As 
long as the intellectual life was practically bounded by 
the field already worked over by the sages of Greece and 
Eome, the vocabularies of these older languages were per- 
fectly adequate for the uses of mediaeval scholars. For 
fourteen centuries the great desire had been to attain 
the summits once reached during the golden age of classic civil- 
ization. The Eenaissance meant not only a more and more 
successful attempt to regain this lost ground, but it marked also 
the stimulus to independent thought outside the traditional 
limits and the beginning of the modern scientific movement. 
Erasmus and a few other devoted classicists struggled 
manfully to make the Latin respond to the changing 
needs of the intellectual life, but all in vain, for the 
inflexibility of the ancient tongue was its undoing. In 
this dilemma, the vernacular, not one but half a dozen or 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 207 

more, rushed forward to fill the breach. Thus while the 
Latin still served the purposes of the philosophers and 
remained a kind of international language in that field, 
the scientists were forced back upon their own resources, 
and they contributed materially to the development of the 
modern tongues.-^ However much our sympathies may 
have been aroused by Eamus's struggles to popularize French 
as a subject of instruction, we must admit that he failed in 
his purpose. The Oratorians, the bitter rivals of the Jes- 
uits, and the illustrious though ill-fated schools of the Port- 
Eoyalists, however, instituted a very important reform when 
they not only based the classical instruction upon the mother 
tongue and also began the latter subject first, but they even 
commenced to study the native language for its own sake.^ 
The progress was slow, for it was not until toward the end 
of that century, the seventeenth, that Hersan and his more 
famous pupil RoUin introduced the study in one of the 
university colleges. The latter speaks with enthusiasm of 
the success he obtained in having his rhetoric pupils sum- 
marize their Latin lessons partly in Latin and partly in 
French, and of the stimulation in interest resulting from 
the introduction of this simple variation of method.^ 
Later this practice of PtoUin's spread until we find the 
exception of the seventeenth century becoming the rule 
of the eighteenth, for Rollins TraitS des etudes largely 
represents the programs of the university colleges until well 
on toward the Revolution. However much the French 
increased in importance, it was entirely dominated by the 
Latin. Even the short-lived Central Schools of the Direc- 
tory as they were actually organized gave comparatively 
little attention to French, and it was all confined to the 
last two years of the course. The first lyc^e program 
published by Napoleon in 1802 carried a somewhat simi- 

1 Cf. Hartog, Teaching of the mother tongue in France, in Ed. Rev. , April, 
1908, XXXV, p. 335. 

2 Lantoine, Histoire de Penseignement secondaire en France au xvii« sidcle, 
p. 170. 

8 Quoted by Lantoine, op. cit., p. 212. 



208 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

lar allotment of time for the native language and litera- 
ture. The revision of 1809 after the founding of the 
University, however, bears evidence of a return to many 
of the conditions of the old rdgime. Then for the first 
time we find a program that in outward appearance 
was very similar to the one in existence until the recent 
reform. At that time French and Latin appeared side by 
side throughout the course, not tliat the two were by any 
means on equal footing, but they were at least contem- 
porary. This juxtaposition remains much the same to-day, 
though on the classical side the native tongue has gained 
absolutely as well as relatively upon the Latin, and on 
the " modern " side, which the new program has estab- 
lished on a par with the classical instruction, the French 
stands alone. In the second cycle, French receives the 
same time allotment on the two "sides," but in the first 
cycle it has nineteen hours in Division B as against only 
twelve in Division A, an advantage which, as has already 
been pointed out, is largely made up by the fine correla- 
tion between classical and French instruction. 

In the elementary classes of the secondary school, instruc- 
tion in the mother tongue is confined to reading, language 
work, analysis, memoriter recitation, and simple written ex- 
ercises, anything approaching literary study even of a most 
elementary type being chiefly conspicuous by its absence. 
The emphasis upon the study of formal grammar and the 
aridity of this literary aspect of the program in comparison 
with that of the primary schools is explicable on two 
grounds: first, the tenacity of the influence of the traditional 
method of classical instruction ; and, second, the fact that in 
the lyc^es and colleges these years are looked upon merely 
as preparatory to the real secondary course which is to 
follow. 

The written exercises in these elementary classes are 
similarly barren, for there is a great deal of dictation work, 
a little letter writing, and only a very small opportunity for 
any self-expression on the part of the pupils. In fact, even 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 209 

in the upper classes, great as has been the progress in the 
last thirty-five years, there is still a good deal of truth in M. 

Br^al's criticism that the pupil acquires "the ^ 
, , .^ „ • ,1 ,• J. n Composition, 

habit 01 expressing the sentiments of conven- 
tion; the literary exercises of the class are for him only 
what the theatre is for the actor." ^ In a first form class, 
the following was given out as the subject for one of 
the written compositions : " A pupil of Eollin has failed in 
some important piece of work he has undertaken. Write a 
letter of sympathy from the master to this pupil." I had 
the good fortune to be present in a third form class during 
the " correction of the task," as the French put it. One of 
the three periods per week is ordinarily spent in this way. 
The subject assigned had been this : 

"Toward midnight on the eve of the battle of Eaveaux 
(1746), M. S^nac, the physician of Marshal Saxe, who found 
himself alone in the tent with his commander, noticed that 
the latter was sad and pensive. On being asked the reason, 
the Marshal replied in these lines from Andromaque, III., 8 : 

' Songe, songe Sephis, a cette nuit cruelle 
Qui fut pour tout un peuple une nuit eternelle ; 
Songe au cris des vainqueurs, songe aux cris des mourants 
Dans la flamme 6toufF4e, sous le fer expirant.' 

In writing what is suggested to you by this incident, make 
use of the following suggestions: (1) Historical introduction 
on Maurice of Saxony ; sketch his military career. (2) De- 
scription of the sleeping camp ; look up the picture of Du- 
taille ; the tent of the Marshal, the only one lighted ; 
entrance of Sdnac. (3) Dialogue between the two men on 
the lines from Eacine, S^nac supporting the necessity for 
the war, Maurice presenting the humanitarian point of 
view. (4) The two men go out of the tent to look at the 
sleeping camp. Use here the scene represented in the sky 
of the picture, and imagine the words of the Marshal and 
his physician as they separate." 

1 Bridal, Quelques mots sur Vinstriiction publique en France, p. 241. 

14 



210 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

After reading two of the better papers and one of the 
poorer ones, the teacher made some very keen and incisive 
general criticisms on the papers as a whole, using the com- 
positions read to illustrate his points. He was particularly- 
severe on the boys that used the cut and dried arguments of 
their ethics text-book in elaborating the dialogue suggested 
above. 

Both these examples are rather characteristic of the ethi- 
cal tendency that permeates the ordinary instruction, and 
the second shows strongly the influence upon the logical 
development of ideas. Furthermore, the second brings out 
very clearly one of the strongest features of French teach- 
ing : the effort made to prevent pupils from making mistakes. 
It is perfectly true that this may be carried to a point which 
is destructive of initiative and independence, but if our 
American teachers would give more attention to this phase 
of their work, they would not have to expend so much energy 
in rectifying errors already made. 

As we come to the upper classes, the elementary language 

work and the technical gi'ammar are gradually sloughed off, 

and save for the ever present memorizing, 
Literature 

composition has to divide the attention only 

with literature. On the whole the latter is unusually well 
done, even though at times it is too intent upon fastening 
the established criticism upon the pupil's mind rather than 
of evoking from him an independent expression of his own 
personal and honest appreciation. From the third form up- 
ward there is an ever increasing amount of attention devoted 
to the history of literature, though not without protest on the 
part of some of the university professors who rather incon- 
siderately maintain that this study should almost exclusively 
be reserved for superior education ; ^ thereby losing sight of 

^ Lanson, L\mivcrsiti et la sociM4 modcrne, p. 111. M. Laiison is not 
quite so emphatic in his statements on this point a year and a half later. See 
his litudes modcrncs dans I'enscignancnt sccondaire, in L' Education de la 
democratic, p. 178, a lecture delivered at the ilcolc deshautes Uudes sociales, in 
the spring of 1903. 



FRENCH AND THE CLASSICS 211 

the fact that a comparatively small proportion of the second- 
ary school graduates ever enter the arts faculties of the uni- 
versities. On the whole, then, reading and interpretation 
claim the major portion of the time. Except for a slight 
emphasis upon nineteenth century poets in the Latin sec- 
tion, and the additional inclusion of selections from the 
prose writers of the same century in the " modern " section, 
the literature course in the main follows a chronological 
order from the classic writers down. After the sixth form, as 
the program implies, each teacher has a rather wide range 
of books from which to choose his texts. This allows con- 
siderable leeway for the exercise of his own personal pref- 
erences and enables the teacher to select the things he likes 
best and will consequently teach most enthusiastically. 
Very little reading is actually done in the class, and one 
hears mere summarizing comparatively seldom. There is 
an evident attempt to take up the play, the poem, or the 
selection as a whole, rather than to follow the fragmentary 
method of treatment that has little place in real literary ap- 
preciation, and usually succeeds in stifling any love for litera- 
ture that might otherwise be aroused. As far as the French 
classics are concerned, the national theatres in Paris do much 
to supplement the school. Kegularly at the Comedie Fran- 
gaise and frequently at the OcUon, one finds classic plays 
upon the boards, and at the latter theatre the prices are un- 
usually low upon such occasions, for in France it has not yet 
become the fashion to neglect the classics. The teachers are 
free to recommend these plays to their pupils, and at the 
Thursday matinee one may count on finding a goodly pro- 
portion of boys and girls in the audience. Of course not all 
the books in the program can be read every year, but when 
a boy has completed the first form (there is no French in the 
final year) one may unhesitatingly affirm that he has made 
the acquaintance of all the classic and the principal modern 
writers of both prose and poetry (save those authors whose 
writings are addressed to a more mature public), that he has 
read their best known works and has committed to memory 



212 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

several thousand lines of their choicest expressions, that he 
has some intelligent notions of the style and characteristics 
of many of them, and that in the main he has acquired an 
appreciation of and a love for good literature. Surely this is 
an achievement of which anybody might be proud. To be 
sure it requires time (in the Latin sections three hours per 
week for six years), a consistently and progressively arranged 
program, and intelligent and skilful teachers, but with the 
possible exception of the memory work is it more than ought 
to be required of our own high school graduates ? 



CHAPTEE X 

MODERN LANGUAGES 

Within the purview of the French public school system, the 
expression " modern languages," or as their term is, " living 
languages," means English, German, Italian, „.^ .^ .• 
Spanish, Arabic, and Eussian. The latter is not of''" Modern 
yet taught in any of the schools; the Arabic Languages." 
and its related language, the Khabyl, concern only the 
schools in Africa ; the Italian and the Spanish are practically 
limited to the lyc^es and colleges near the borders of these 
respective countries ; so that the observations which follow 
are based largely upon the languages of the nations immedi- 
ately east and immediately west, though, unless there are 
specific exceptions to the contrary, they must be understood 
as applying equally well to the two Eomance languages. 

Modern language instruction in France is practically a 
creation of the nineteenth century, for although one finds 
spasmodic references to it, at least ever since 
the days of the Oratorians and the Port-Eoyal- Modern 
ists, these are interesting rather as showing Language 
the difficulty it found in making a place for 
itself in the program than as chronicling any appreciable 
results definitely accomplished. It is probable that Eich- 
elieu, when he prescribed "the comparison of the Greek, 
Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish languages" among the 
subjects of instruction of the college he was responsible for 
establishing in 1640,^ was merely continuing what P. de 
Coudren had already begun in the colleges of the Orato- 

1 Caillet, De V administration en France sous Richelieu, IT., p. 175, quoted 
in Hamel, Histoire de Vdbhaye et du colUge de Juilly, p. 233. 



214 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

rians. But however accurately this suggestion may have 
been carried out, it can hardly be dignified by the name 
modern language instruction. Very shortly after that time, 
the Port-Eoyalists were evidently doing something more 
worthy of the name. Lancelot published his Italian Method ^ 
and his Spanish Method in 1660, and Eacine is said to 
have known both these languages when he was just fresh 
from the school.^ Both these quickly appeared in second 
editions, the former in 1664 and the latter in 1665. In the 
Spanish book, at least, he was apparently influenced by 
purely utilitarian purposes, for the object as set forth in his 
preface is "that it may be of service for the promotion of 
intercourse and commerce between the two foremost na- 
tions of Europe," and on account of the widespread use 
of the Spanish language, it will serve as a medium of 
communication in *' the East and the West Indies, in Europe, 
in Africa, in Asia, and in America." 

The study of Spanish and Italian also appears in dAgues- 
seau's Instructions a mes enfants, dating from 1716, but not 
published until 1756, written with the idea of laying out a 
course of preparation for the magistracy,jbut whether the 
presence of the study of these two languages is due to any 
connection with previous efforts or merely to a personal 
conviction drawn from his own general learning and broad 
scholarship it is difficult to say. Be that as it may,^ his 
attention was directed toward higher rather than second- 
ary education, a point of view that may be reflected by 
La Chalotais when he says : " The modern languages are 
treated almost like one's contemporaries, with a kind of 
indifference and almost always slightingly. Circumstances 
and taste ought to fix the time for them. Ordinarily they 
are left for the years that follow education " ^ (that is, after 

1 Nouvelle mithode pour aj'tprendre facilement et en pen de teiyips la langue 
Italienne. 

2 CoMPAYRi!:, Histoire critiqite des doctrines de I'ddiocatmi en France depuis 
le seizikme si^cle, II., p. 260. 

8 La Chalotais, Essai d 'Education nationale, 1763, p. 70. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 215 

the age of seventeen or eighteen which he fixed as the 
normal limit). English and German were the two modern 
languages specifically named by La Chalotais, the former 
for use in scientific investigation, the latter for purposes of 
military study. Nevertheless, he gave them merely a pass- 
ing mention, apparently not thinking it worth while to 
discuss them at length. This same La Chalotais is inter- 
esting for evidently having had in mind a suggestion of 
the direct method of to-day, when he pointed out very 
clearly that in learning a living language, one made a 
direct association between the object itself and its name, 
whereas in learning a dead language the association was 
between the name in the foreign language and the name 
in the vernacular. As he put it, in one case it is the 
symbol of an object, in the otlier it is the symbol of a 
symbol.^ J 

» The movement for the introduction of modern language 
study into the curriculum grew but slowly, for it was not 
recognized as of sufficient general utility to warrrant assign- 
ing it a place on the college programs. Guyton de Mor- 
veau, writing in 1764, frankly declared that no country in 
Europe was interesting itself in the languages of its neighbors 
less than France,^ a neglect undoubtedly largely due to the 
position in the world of letters and diplomacy that the French 
language had by that time come to occupy. In following 
the "preceptor of our rival nation "(Locke), he recommends 
Italian, English, and German as useful for business, com- 
merce, and travelling, as well as for fine arts, literature, and 
scholarship. Although adducing such broad advantages for 
foreign language study, he proposed a very limited scope, 
for he advocated introducing it only in the schools of the 
provincial capitals, and of reserving it almost invariably 
until after the year of physics, which was the crowning 
study in his educational scheme. ^ 

1 La. Chalotais, Essai d' education natimiale, 1763, p. 76. 

2 Guyton de Morveatj, Mimoire sur I' education puhlique, avec le prospectus 
d'v/n college suivant les principes de cet ouvrage, p. 119. 



216 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Although demanded by some of the Cahiers de 1789} 
inserted in the proposed schemes of Talleyrand, 1791, the 
City of Paris, 1793, Romme, 1793, Lakanal, 1795, suggested 
furtively by Daunou, 1795, for the Central Schools, tempo- 
rarily occupying a place in the program of the Prytanee, 
1801, and in 1814 put on the same footing as the other 
" accomplishments," dancing, music, and fencing, to be paid 
for by the parents outside the regular school fees, modern 
language instruction finally found a regular place, but even 
then only as an optional subject, for the first time in the 
progi-am of 1821.^ M. Vatimesnirs report to the king in 
March, 1829^ wherein he referred to the establishment of 
special sections in some of the royal colleges, for instruction 
in science, modern languages, the theory of commerce, and 
drawing, in an effort to make instruction respond "to the 
needs of the commercial, agricultural, industrial, and manu- 
facturing professions," a demand which the classical learning 
had utterly failed to supply, evidently bore some fruit, for 
' modern language instruction was made compulsory in the 
fall of 1829, only to be relegated to the optional group in the 
following spring. It was still being taught on Thursdays or 
during the interval between the regular morning and after- 
noon classes. In the classical course since 1838, and in the 
"modern" course from the very beginning in 1847, it has 
been compulsory for everybody at some time, but the num- 
ber of years of prescribed work has been very variable. The 
maximum was reached in 1880, when modern language study 
appeared in every year from the preparatory form through the 
philosophy and amounted to twenty-nine week hours for 
the whole course out of a grand total of two hundred and 
forty- five hours for the ten years. At the same time French 
had fifty-one hours ; Latin and Greek, sixty ; science, forty- 

1 Champion, L'instniction pvblique en France d'apr^ Us cahiers de 1789, 
in Revue internationalc de I'cnseignement, 1884, II., p. 13. 

2 For these various programs see GriSard, Emeignement secondaire, 11. , 
Annexes, pp. 238-250. 

8 Quoted by Gr^ard, op. cit., p. 253. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 217 

one ; history and geography, thirty- six ; drawing, ten ; and 
philosophy, eight.^ • 

Since that time there have been attempts made to abolish 
the modern languages from all classes below the sixth, but 
these have thus far proved abortive, partly on j^g^^^^ ^.^^^ 
account of the opposition from the teachers in in the Lower 
those classes who saw themselves in danger of Classes. 
losing the extra remuneration granted to holders of the 
additional modern language certificate, but chiefly from the 
parents who still clung to this instruction in the second year 
of the preparatory division and in the eighth and seventh 
forms as constituting the only outwardly distinguishing 
characteristic between the program of the elementary classes 
of the lyc^es and colleges and the work given in the free 
public primary schools^j^ The administration thus found 
itself confronting an annoying dilemma. The parents de- 
manded these languages in the lower classes ; the authorities 
were trying to co-ordinate the secondary school course proper 
with the primary school program so as to make an easy 
and natural transition from the latter to the former. Since 
the lower primary school program makes no provision for 
modern languages, to comply with this popular demand 
meant to defeat the very purpose of the administration 
along the line just indicatedTT^The languages are still taught 
for three years preceding the sixth form, but only two hours 
per week, and a relatively small number of boys are entering 
the sixth form direct from the lower primary schools. The 
result of putting these latter into the class with boys that 
have been studying a language for three years can readily be 
imagined. The confused grading reacts both ways : in the 
upper form in retarding the class and in immeasurably in- 
creasing the burden of the teacher; in the lower forms in 
emasculating the work of most of its virility and seriousness.) 
Such a condition of mal-grading would not be tolerated for a 
moment in the ancient languages or in mathematics, but just 

^ Arrets, Aug. 2, 1880, Gerard, op. cit., Annexes, pp. 280-281. 



218 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

at present there seems to be no immediate prospect of rid- 
ding the modern languages of this incubus. The unsatisfac- 
tory condition of modern language instruction in the lower 
classes is thus not entirely the fault of the teachers, although 
it must be admitted that one ordinarily finds here the most 
poorly equipped teachers, especially where the instruction is 
entrusted, as is usually the case, to the regular class teachers 
that have done the extra work necessary to gain the certifi- 
cate required for this purpose. To make matters worse, the 
official regulations contain no specific instructions as to the 
modern language program in these grades, merely dispos- 
ing of it with " two hours per week." The recitations that I 
visited in these elementary classes were distressingly dull, 
but what more could one expect when the recitations come 
only twice a week, and the teacher is limited to the most 
commonplace expressions within the vocabulary furnished 
by the class room and its immediate environment ? 

Tn the upper forms the official instructions are most spe- 
cific, the years devoted to modern language study being 
divided into three periods : the first covering the sixth and 
fifth forms, characterized by the acquisition of a simple 
vocabulary, the training of the ear and the vocal chords, and 
in accustoming the pupil to speak in the foreign tongue ; 
the second period including the fourth and third forms, 
occupied in developing the conversational power, in enlarg- 
ing the vocabulary, in widening the basis of his grammatical 
knowledge, and in putting him in position to understand 
books and other publications printed in the foreign language 
as well as to express his own thought in the written lan- 
guage ; the third period covering the entire second cycle, 
wherein the language is sufficiently well known so that 
reading no longer being the chief aim, the pupil may begin 
to learn about the country itself, and the life and the litera- . 
ture of its people. ^ 

^ Instructions annexed to the circular of Nov. 15, 1901, in FIa7i d'Uudes 
et programmes d' cnscignement dans Ics lycies et colUges de gargons, 1907-1908, 
pp. 32-33. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 219 

PROGRAMS OF THE FIRST PERIOD. SIXTH AND FIFTH 

FORMS 

5 Hours a Week 

(Common to Divisions A and B) 

Pronunciation. — All the efforts of the teacher should be directed 
toward obtaining from the very first a good pronunciation and a correct 
accent. In order to obtain this he should pronounce the words slowly, 
separating the syllables, and should have them repeated after him, 
sometimes by one pupil, sometimes by several, and sometimes by all in 
concert. Not until then should he write the word on the board. 

Vocabulary. — The words should be taught from the objects them- 
selves, with as little recourse as possible to the mother tongue. 

The pupil acquires progressively the vocabulary related to the fol- 
lowing subjects: 

SIXTH FORM 

The Child AT School. Objects that he uses in class. Relations with 
the people around him. Principal actions in school (I write, I read, etc.). 
Movements about the class. Parts of the class room. Use of school 
furniture. Recreation. Games. 

Numbers (cardinal and ordinal). Simple reckoning. Weights and 
measures. 

Time and Temperature. Divisions of time. Heat and cold. Sea- 
sons (very general notions). 

The Human Body and its Physical Needs. Food. Clothing. The 
senses. Health and sickness. 

The Home and the Family. Parts of the house; different rooms; 
furniture and utensils. The members of the family ; their occupations ; 
family gatherings. 

FIFTH FORM 

The Country. Appearance of the country ; atmospheric phenomena ; 
seasons ; plants and animals. Occupations of the country : the farmer ; 
the vine dresser; the gardener; the wood cutter. The country house: 
principal parts. The domestic animals; use and services rendered. 
Farming implements. Pleasures of the country: hunting and fishing; 
walking and other modes of locomotion; festivities and diversions. 

The City. Streets (vehicles), railway station, post office, hotel, 
theatres, museums, libraries, large and small shops, markets. The prin- 
cipal occupations. 

Nature. The ocean, rivers, mountains, plains, forests, sky. 

Very General Notions of the Geography of the Country whose 
Language they are studying. 



220 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The teacher should not attempt to exhaust the vocabularies of the 
foregoing subjects, but should limit them to the words in ordinary use. 
He is especially cautioned not to use technical terms and to avoid 
naming in the foreign language objects or parts of objects unless the 
pupils already know the French name. 

Grammar. Thorough grammatical drill during the first period. 
The essential point is that the ear should be accustomed to the form 
before the rule is given, and that the rule, always clear and concise, 
should be a simple statement of a general fact. 

Conversation. Throughout the first period, conversation is at once 
the end and the means. The immediate aim is to fix the words in the 
pupil's memory, and to accustom his ear to require the correct form. 
The pupil should always respond in a complete sentence. The teacher 
should as soon as possible use the foreign language for whatever he has 
to say. 

Written Work. At first, this is of only secondary importance. 
From time to time dictation exercises may be profitably used, but one 
ought always to be sure that the text is already understood. 

Text Book. . . . Explain new words by the aid of words already 
familiar. In any event avoid the word-for-word translation. The 
teacher will determine for himself when he will put a book into the 
hands of his pupils, but at all events not until they have acquired a good 
pronunciation. 



SECOND PERIOD. FOURTH AND THIRD FORMS 

5 Hours 

(Common to Divisions A and B) 

1. A book of selections containing pictures of the life abroad, prac- 
tical notions, in a pleasant and brief way, about commerce, the means of 
communication, the diversions and the institutions of the people; in 
other words, presenting the vocabulary of daily life in a series of con- 
nected passages. 

2. Selected short stories and dialogues, as far as possible giving the 
pupils pictures of contemporary manners and customs as well as models 
of style for their own stories. This selection may include stories, 
legends, and poetry. 

English. Selections from such modern authors as: Marrj^at, Stev- 
enson, Miss Edgeworth, Miss Mitford, Miss Montgomery, Mrs. Burnett, 
Ouida, Kingsley, Hawthorne, Hardy, Thomas Hughes, Anstej'^, Rider 
Haggard, Mary Wilkins, Wells, Jerome K. Jerome, etc. Short poems 
and stories in verse from Cowper, Southey, Scott, Wordsworth, 
Coleridge, Campbell, Kingsley, Longfellow, Morris, Mrs. Browning, etc. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 221 

German. Selections from such modern authors as: W. Alexis, M. 
von Ebner-Eschenbach, Fontane, Freytag, Ganghofer, Gottschall, 
Hacklander, P. Heyse, Hans Hoffmann, Hans Hopfen, Max Kretzer, 
D. von Liliencron, Raabe, Riehl, Rodenberg, Rosegger, Max Schmidt, 
Spielhagen, Stifter, Stinde, Storm, Sudermann, Wildenbruch, Wilbrandt, 
etc. 

Italian. A collection of the nature of Lapi's edition of Prose e Poesie 
italiane scelte e annotate da Luigi Morandi. L. Capuana, Cera una 
volta. Short stories of C. CoUodi, Emma Perodi, Ida Baccini. 

Spanish. Extracts from modern authors, such as the narratives, 
short stories, and anecdotes of Trueba, Ferndn Caballero, Pereda, Fer- 
nandez Bremen, Carlos Rubio, Eduardo Bustillo, Narciso Campillo, 
Ruiz Aguilera, Castro y Serrano, Valera, Pardo Bazan, Eusebio Blasco, 
Fernanflor, Palacio Vald^s, Salvador Rueda, Blasco Ibanez, etc. 

If the teacher prefers to use a more connected text, he may choose 
one of the works named below : 

English. Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales, Wonder Book. Kingsley, 
The Heroes, Water Babies. Halliwell, Popular Rhymes and Nursery 
Tales. Swift, Gulliver's Travels. Kipling, First Jungle Book (extracts). 
Lady Barker, Station Life in New Zealand. Miss Montgomery, Mis- 
understood. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield. Johnson, Rasselas. Sir 
John Lubbock, Pleasures of Life. 

German. Grimm, Mdrchen. Bechstein, Deutsche Mdrchen. Hauff, 
Mdrchen. Goethe, Der neue Paris (W. u. D. II), das Puppenspiel (W. 
Meister I, 2-7), die gefdhrliche Wette (Wanderjahre, III., 8). Rosegger, 
Waldjugend, Als ich noch der Waldbauernbub war. Stifter, Granit, Der 
Waldsteig. Storm, Pole Poppenspdler, Geschichten aus der Tonne. M. 
von Ebner-Eschenbach, Krambambuli, Schloss- und Dorf geschichten. 
Wildenbruch, Neid, Kindertrdnen. G. Keller, Kleider Machen Leute. 

Italian. Silvio Pellico, Le mie Prigioni. Giovanni Dupre, Pensieri 
suir arte e ricordi autobiografici. Emilio de Marchi, L'Eta preziosa. 
Giovanni Verga, Storia di una capinera. Edmondo De Amicis, Cuore, 
Alle porte d' Italia, La vita militare. Antonio Fogazzaro, Daniele 
Cortis. Ida Baccini, La storia di Firenze narrata a scuola. 

Spanish. Extracts from Don Quijote. Selected fables (Saman- 
iego, Iriarte, J erica, Hartzenbu^ch, etc.). Ferndn Caballero, Cuentos, 
oraciones, adivinas y refranes populares e infantiles. A. de Trueba, 
Cuentos populares, Cuentos campesifios, El libra de los Cantares, Narra- 
ciones populares, Frontaura, Las tiendas. 

Russian. Tolstoi, Tourguenev, Gogol. Lermontov, Bella. Pouch- 
kine, Boris Boulba. 

A newspaper may replace one of the above named books, but only 
on condition that all the pupils subscribe for it. 



222 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

THIRD PERIOD. SECOND AND FIRST FORMS 

2 Hours* 

(Common to Sections A, B, C, and D) 

1. Reading based upon history, geography, science, arts, and in- 
dustry. 

2. Selections from the masterpieces of the literature, or from one of 
the following works : 

SECOND FORM 

English. Sheridan, The School for Scandal. Goldsmith, She Stoops 
to Conquer. Irving, Rip Van Winkle, Spectre Bridegroom, Legend of 
Sleepy Hollow. Stevenson, Treasure Island. Longfellow, Tales of a 
Wayside Inn (extracts). W. Morris, The Earthly Paradise (extracts). 
Macaulay, Essays (extracts). Dickens, Christmas Carol. 

German. Selections from lyric poetry: Burger, Goethe, Schiller, 
Tieck, A. W. and F. Schlegel, Chamisso, Uhland, A. Griin, Lenau, Rtick- 
ert, Platen, Heine, etc. Extracts from Goethe's prose works : Werther, 
Wilhelm Meister, Briefe aus der Schweiz, Italienische Reise. 

Italian. Selections from Ariosto, Metastase, Goldoni, Monti, Gozzi, 
L'Osservatore. Alfieri, Vita. Manzoni, / promessi sposi. 

Spanish. Selections from classic lyric poetry. Anthology of modern 
and contemporary poets. Extracts from the Romancero. Short stories 
of Pedro de Alarcon, Valera, Trueba, Pardo Bazan, etc. Selected scenes 
from the contemporary Saynetes (Javier de Burgos, Vital Aza, Ramos 
Carrion, Ricardo de la Vega, etc.). Cervantes, Don Quijote. Moratin, 
El si de las Niiias. Quintana, Vidas de espanoles celebres. Mesonero 
Romanos, Escenas Matritenses. 

FIRST FORM 

English. Shakespeare, Jidius Coesar, Macbeth. Extracts from 
Milton, Addison, Goldsmith (prose and poetry), Wordsworth. Byron, 
Prisoner of Chillon. Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner. Dickens, David 
Copperfield (abridged edition). Macaulay, extracts from the History 
of England. Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, Silas Marner. Tennyson, 
Enoch Arden, The Brook, Ulysses, The Lotu^ Eaters. Thackeray, Eng- 
lish Humorists. 

Germ.vn. Dramatic Poetry: Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, Maria Stunrt, 
Jungfrau von Orleans, Wallenstein. Goethe, Iphigenie, Tasso, Egmont, 

1 Besides tins, Sections B and D have one hour per week additional on the 
language already begun, and four hours for the second language. In the 
latter case, the texts are chosen from the list indicated for ordinary use in 
the fourth and third forms. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 223 

Faust, I., Goetz von Berlichingen. Kleist, Prim von Hamburg. Grill- 
parzer, Historische Dramen. Extracts from the prose of Wieland, 
Goethe (Dichtung und Wahrheit, Kampagne in Frankreich, Die fran^ 
zosische Liter atur), Schiller, Novalis, Immermann, Auerbach, Freytag, 
Scheffel, G. Keller, K. F. Meyer, Heyse, etc. 

Italian. Selections from Boccaccio, Petrarch, Vasari, Alfieri, Cas- 
tiglione, II Cortigiano. Cellini, Vita. Parini, II Giorno, Le Odi. Tasso, 
selections from La Gerusalemme liberata. Extracts from contemporary 
novelists (especially A. Fogazzaro, Renato Fucini, L. Capuana, G. 
Verga, M. Serao). 

Spanish. Cervantes, Don Quijote. Selections from Novelas ejem- 
plares. Extracts from the historians: Mendoza, Mariana, Solis, Melo, 
Quintana, Toreno, etc. Selections from the classic and the modern 
plays, such as: Castro, Mocedades del Cid. Alarcon, Verdad sospe- 
chosa. Calderon, La vida es sueno. Moreto, El desden con el desden. 
Moratin, El cafe. Selected scenes from Breton de los Herreros, Rubl, 
Eguilaz, Tamayo, Ayala, Echegaray, etc. Larra, Articulos de costumbres. 



PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS FORMS ^ 

(Philosophy A, 2 hours, optional; Mathematics A, 2 hours; Philosophy 
B and Mathematics B, 1 hour, and 2 hours additional, distributed 
according to the choice of the pupils.) 

1. Extracts from the principal historians, critics, and philosophers. 

2. Selected readings from nineteenth century literature : 
English. Emerson, English Traits. Spencer, Selected essays. 

Stuart Mill, Autobiography. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy. Ruskin, On 
the Nature of Gothic {Stones of Venice, II.). Carlyle, Essay on Goethe, and 
Essay on Burns. Seeley, The Expansion of England. Keats, extracts. 
Byron, Childe Harold, canto III. Extracts from Tennyson, Robert 
Browning, Mrs. Browning, and from the poems of Kipling. 

Italian. Selections from Dante, Foscolo, Giusti, Leopardi, Mach- 
iavelli, a collection of the nature of Finzi's Crestomazia machiavellica. 
Galilee, Prose scelte. A. Fogazzaro, critical and philosophical writings 
(L'Origine dell' Uomo, Per la Bellezza d'un 'idea, II dolore nelV arte, etc.). 

Spanish. Extracts from the moralists (Guevara, Quevedo, Gracian, 
Granada, Leon) ; and from the critics (Quintana, Martinez de la Rosa, 
Lista, Valera, Men^ndez Pelayo, etc.). Contemporary lyric poetry 
(Espronceda, Zorilla, B^cquer, Compoamor, Nunez de Arce, etc.). 
Selections from the "Picaresques," and the contemporary novelists. 

Such is the list of authors from which the modern lan- 
guage texts are to be chosen for the last five years of the 
regular course. Aside from the query that is likely to come 
into one's mind on the advisability of including such authors 

^ See also page 236. 



224 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

as Marryat, Miss Edgeworth, Miss Mitford, Miss Montgom- 
ery, Ouida, Anstey, Rider Haggard, and Wells, that are 
j^ , J. found in the second period, in any such repre- 
American Au- sentative list of English authors- for school 
thors. purposes,! and the probable desire of most 
Americans to see more of our own authors represented, one 
finds a broad and on the whole a good selection from which 
to choose. One might reasonably expect, however, to find 
more than five American authors in a list of fifty-two Eng- 
lish-speaking writers, especially when the above-mentioned 
names are included. It would seem as though the present 
position of the United States in the commercial, industrial, 
and agricultural world would merit the wider acquaintance 
with the manners, customs, and ideals of the people that 
could only be obtained from their own literature. There 
may be some excuse for the common failure, even among 
reasonably intelligent people in Erance, to distinguish geo- 
graphically between an inhabitant of Eio Janeiro and one of 
New York, when one finds j an English reading book issued 
from the press of an Englisli publishing house that enjoys 
an international reputation, and now in regular use in at 
least one modern language class in France, the following 
sentence on the United States : " Bisons are being gradually 
driven westward, and are now never found east of the Mis- 
sissippi." On the other hand, it is a pleasure to read accu- 
rate though meagre information about the United States 
in some of the newer text-books ^ for use in the English 
classes. 

1 The writer refrains from criticising the list of authors in the other mod- 
ern languages, but he feels reasonably sure tbat a similar criticism might be 
passed upon them. Certainly one has reason to question the exclusion of 
some of the German writers. 

2 Gricotjrt-Kuhn, England past and present. Part I., Geography and 
History. Part II., Literature. These two volumes are mainlj'^ compilations 
of well-chosen extracts from the best English writers, together with just 
enough connecting material by the authors themselves to give as intelligent 
a notion of the development of the Anglo-Saxon race and literature from the 
very beginning down to 1907 as is possible, considering the extremely cursory 
nature of the material in hand. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 225 

"All that we have just said about teaching the ancient 
languages" (basing it upon a serious course in grammar) 
" can and ought to be applied equally to the 

. J p J £ ■ 1 ))i 1- Direct Method 

study of modern toreign languages, ^ explams __ weakness 
very tersely the heavy burden that oppressed in its Appli- 
modern language instruction until the reform 
instituted in 1901. Although preceding the new secondary 
school program by a few months, this change must never- 
theless be reckoned as a part of the general reorganization. 
Since that time modern language instruction has been vi- 
talized by the application of a new method that does not 
confound the teaching of a language whose chief benefit is 
attributed to the mental drill involved in its acquisition with 
that wherein the value consists primarily in the ultimate 
ability to handle the language practically. The modifica- 
tions in modern language teaching are thus unquestionably 
the most significant of all those effected by the reform 
program, for they not only indicate a radical change of 
practice, but, what is more important still, they show a fun- 
damental change of aim. One is impelled to question if the 
program in specifying that "the literary culture properly 
speaking will always be subordinate to the spoken or written 
use of the language, which remains the principal object of 
all its instruction," 2 is not too readily allowing proximate 
utility to dominate. The old instruction was certainly too 
grammatical, literary, and formal. Is not the new too crassly 
utilitarian ? Aside from the graduate classes preparing for 
the normal school, the instruction in most of the others that 
I visited reflected the evident desire of the professor who 
said, in criticising the methods formerly employed : " I read 
Byron in my year in the philosophy form, and I should not 
have been able to order my Ivmcheon in a London restau- 
rant." It is now doubtless true that "the pupils on returning 
from a trip abroad can tell us in confidence how, thanks to 

1 Maneuvrier, L' Education de le bourgeoisie sous la r42)uhlique, 3™^ ed., 
1888, p. 192. 

2 Instructions annex6es d la circulaire du 15 Novemhre, 1901, § 9. 

15 



226 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the recollection of the colored pictures commented upon in 
the lyc^e, they were intelligent guides and trustworthy inter- 
preters for then- families " ; but is this the goal of modern 
language instruction ? In the recoil from the undisputed 
evils of the old methods, has not the present exaltation of 
the immediately useful forced the student to forego that 
acquaintance with the great fundamental ideals that underlie 
the expression of the national action, — an acquaintance that 
can come only from wide and wisely chosen reading ? If 
the pupils could learn to know a goodly proportion of the 
books named on the program, such an end might be ap- 
proximated ; but even from the fourth form up through the 
higher classes many a class is limited to two or three books 
a year. The necessary reduction of reading matter to this 
minimum naturally forces one to characterize the direct 
method as it is ordinarily worked out in the secondary 
schools to-day as manifestly superficial. On the other hand, 
one occasionally finds an enthusiastic teacher who says with 
justifiable pride : " Oh, yes, in the course as a whole, some of 
my boys read forty or fifty books, for they are passionately 
interested in the work, but naturally I cannot require all to 
do that." 

The direct method, which is none other than a modifica- 
tion of that promoted by Dr. Victor of Marburg a little more 
„, . than a quarter of a century ago, is essentially a 

conversational method. Although one does not 
find every individual modern language teacher in the French 
secondary schools applying the official instructions as unre- 
servedly as the general inspectors might wish, yet even the 
older teachers in whom the habit furrows have been worn 
deep by years of practice along classical lines, are making 
sincere efforts to adapt themselves to the new order of things. 
In a few classes that I visited, not one word of the mother 
tongue was uttered from the beginning of the hour until the 
end. In fact even the pupils that came up after the class 
were compelled to confine themselves to the foreign language. 
In a stUl smaller number of classes I found considerable 



MODERN LANGUAGES 227 

direct translation into the French intermingled with a goodly 
amount of conversation in the foreign tongue. In the main, 
however, save for occasional recourse to the vernacular to 
clear up difficulties, one might fairly say that the classes-, as 
a whole were conducted entirely in the foreign languages. 
The teacher spoke in the foreign tongue, the pupil read in 
the foreign tongue, and then used the same medium to ex- 
plain what he had just read. It is not always easy to use a 
foreign language to summarize or to give an abstract of what 
one has just read in that language, but when one is required 
to paraphrase or to give a word-for-word explanation without 
recourse to the vernacular, the difficulty is considerably en- 
hanced. Yet this latter is done from the very first. The 
best exponents of the direct method compel their pupils to 
act as much as possible like English, or German, or Italian, 
or Spanish boys throughout the whole of the hour. 

i In order still further to carry out this illusion, many of 
the modern language teachers, especially the English, have 
fairly covered the walls of their class room with 
maps of England, plans of London, posters, and ''^^"^6^17^ 
notices of various kinds, all in the foreign lan- 
guage, 'i Bill-board advertisements of plays (one that I saw 
must have covered at least forty square feet), military dis- 
plays, county fairs, bicycles, automobile accessories, etc., were 
frequent, " Cyclists and motorists — speed not to exceed 
five miles an hour," "Time is money," and other similar 
signs were on the walls of one class room. Sometimes these 
formed a mere heterogeneous collection, but at others the se- 
lection and arrangement displayed considerable taste on the 
part of the teacher. Photographs of London landmarks and 
scenes typical of English life, together with well- chosen sets 
of picture postal cards, gave evidence that the trips to Eng- 
land, which many of these teachers make regularly, had had 
some other aim than mere pleasure seeking. 

i Not a little zest is added to the work of the upper classes 
by the foreign correspondence carried on by some of the 
pupils, a practice that is productive of much good on both 



228 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

sides. Many a boy in the French lyc^es has a correspond- 
ent in England or Germany, or even in America, whom he 

knows only by letter and an occasional ex- 
Additional , p t ^ 1 -r-< 1 -I • 

Aids to Laii- change 01 photographs. Jiach one writes m 
guage Acquisi- the other's language, and the best results are 
obtained when the recipient of the letter is will- 
ing to take the trouble to correct the errors of his friend across 
the border. One of the most interesting of these relationships 
that I found was that of an older pupil in a small but illus- 
trious provincial college who had a correspondent in Esper- 
anto in Portland, Maine. In the Academy of Dijon, where 
this college happens to be situated, there is a great deal of 
interest in Esperanto, largely due to the enthusiasm of the 
rector, so that pupils in some of the secondary schools, some 
of the normal schools, and even in some of the higher pri- 
mary schools have an opportunity to take up the study of 
this international language as an elective subject. The 
direct method enthusiasts practically neglect, or at least 
do not fully appreciate, one cardinal difficulty that must 
always stand in the way of the strict application of this 
method; even under the most favorable conditions the 
foreign environment may be simulated for five or at most 
ten hours a week, but for the other one hundred hours, 
approximately speaking, of his waking time, the pupil is 
surrounded by conditions that are exclusively French. 

In order to ameliorate this situation the Ministry has 

recently ^ arranged for an interchange of assistants by which 

prospective teachers of French in the other 

Foreign countries come to France for assignment to 

Assistants. " 

various lyc^es, and young French students are 
reciprocally sent abroad to spend one or more terms in one 
of the foreign schools. The arrangement i^ ordinarily for 

^ In the girls' primary normal schools, a similar arrangement has been in 
vogue since 1894. The conventions between the Ministry of Public Instruc- 
tion in France and the corresponding authorities abroad ■with regard to 
secondary schools were signed : with Prussia and England in 1905 (the agree- 
ment with the latter country extending also to the primary normal schools 
and to the higher primary schools), with Austria, Saxony, and Spain in 1907. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 229 

a year, although it may continue for only six mouths, or 
it may be extended to two years. In France the foreigners 
receive their living at the lycde, and in return spend a 
couple of hours per day in conversing with the modern 
language pupils, taking them by turns in small groups. 
While the French official in charge of these arrangements 
receives applications for appointment to these foreign posts, 
and sends the papers of each candidate to the corresponding 
office abroad, his function is chiefly that of a discriminating 
forwarding agent, the actual choice being left to the foreign 
office. Similarly, it is the French official who selects the 
foreign assistants appointed in France. The minimum qual- 
ification of the French candidates is the possession of the 
master's degree, while the foreign governments require an 
equivalent academic standing from the young men they send 
abroad. This movement which began very modestly is now 
expanding rapidly, and is apparently meeting with success 
and consequent hearty support wherever the experiment is 
tried.i It is boimd to render valuable assistance in supply- 
ing a real foreign flavor and a point of view that must almost 
inevitably be lacking in a native foreign language teacher, 
however fluent may be his command of the spoken language. 
These foreign language assistants to a certain extent 
supply the place of modern language clubs. It has never 
been my good fortune to find such organiza- Modern 
tions in the secondary schools, though I am Language 
told they exist. It seems ratlier strange that Clubs. 
the idea of the English clubs in the lyc^e at Alen9on2 has 
not been more widely adopted. Here there were two organ- 
izations, one for the younger pupils and the other for the 
older. Each group subscribed to an English magazine, the 
older one in addition taking one of the Paris daily papers 
printed in English. Besides the conversation based upon the 

1 According to the figures obtained from the office of M. Friedel who has 
charge of this work at the Musee pedagogique, Paris, in 1907-8, there were 
sixty-nine of these English assistants and seventy-five German. 

2 FRANgois, La conversation et la lecture dans I'Uude des langues vivantes. 
in Bevue universitaire, 1902, I., p. 46. 



230 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

material obtained from these two sources, the club meetings 
on Thursdays were further enlivened by recitations, songs, 
and dialogues. The one-franc entrance fee, together with 
weekly dues of ten centimes and absence fines of half that 
amount furnished the funds for the running expenses. The 
fact that there was no president, each member in turn pre- 
siding at the meetings, shows the typically French idea of 
such a school organization, wherein the direction is carefully 
centered in the hands of the class teacher. 

Where so much depends upon the skill of the individual 

teacher and where mere routine plays such an insignificant 

part, it is not surprising to find less similarity 

PP ica ion. i-jgi^^ggj^ t;^Q English or two German classes 

than between two classes in any other subject of the curric- 
ulum. Wherever the direct method is tried consistently its 
results are certainly striking. Although the English th and 
the r constantly give trouble throughout the course, and the 
intonation of the sentence often leaves much to be desired, 
some of the French boys that I saw spoke remarkably well, 
and on the occasions when I was asked to address them, they 
succeeded unusually well in understanding what I had to 
say. Of course their vocabulary is limited, but when one 
confines himself to the words they know, they seem to have 
little difficulty in following. Many of those that I put to 
the test repeated in English the substance of what I had 
said, and the others, save for one or two exceptions, were all 
able to give it in French. One is compelled to admit that 
the direct method does enable the pupils to understand the 
spoken foreign language and does give a certain facility in 
its use. As a rule, however, the number of pages read by 
the class is comparatively small, in many cases not exceeding 
one hundred and fifty or two hundred during the whole year, 
but whatever is done is thoroughly done. The words con- 
tained therein become a part of not only the visual and the 
written vocabulary, but also of the aural and the oral. As in 
the acquisition of the mother tongue, the two latter come 
first and really provide the means by which the former are 



MODERN LANGUAGES 231 

gained. The approach is made through the utterance of the 
teacher and is subsequently carried on through its repetition 
by the pupil before the latter is brought face to face with 
the written thought. In the final stage, the pupil is led to 
express himself on paper. From first to last the stress is 
emphatically upon the oral .expression. It must be remem- 
bered that this ability, being so dependent upon special 
training of the ear and the vocal chords, aside entirely from 
the facility in idiomatic construction involved therein, and 
being consequently so much a matter of practice, most easily 
falls into desuetude if these particular language habits are 
not kept in training. Skill in reading, on the other hand, 
where this aural and vocal training are not involved, seems 
to pass much less readily. The question immediately arises : 
" Do the permanent results attained justify the distribution 
of emphasis between conversation and reading ? " 

Such is the place accorded this oral work that throughout 
the whole first period, the sixth and fifth forms, the teachers 
have no official list from which to select their reading mate- 
rial. During these two years, effort is mainly directed 
toward forming a correct pronunciation, acquiring a working 
vocabulary, and learning enough grammar for intelligent and 
accurate oral and written expression. In pursuance of this 
purpose, the gi-eat majority of the teachers put into the hands 
of their pupils one of the several excellent beginning mod- 
ern language books that have appeared since the new pro- 
gram went into effect. The teacher does not hesitate, 
however, to depart widely from the limits of the text- 
book in order to find illustrative material as a basis for 
conversational, written, or memory work. Learning by heart 
plays almost as important a part here as in instruction in 
the classics and in French, but an assignment is never set 
for memorizing without previously being read aloud by the 
professor and most carefully explained, always in the foreign 
language. This often taxes the ingenuity and skill of the 
teacher, particularly when it comes to the explanation of 
abstract nouns, but aided by pantomime and illustrative 



232 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

example, he is seldom compelled to seek refuge in the 
vernacular. 

The following extracts from my note book will give an 
idea of the way this conversational method is handled in a 

beginning class. It shows the association of 
^Practkr"" action and speech. It was a sixth form of 

forty-five pupils. The notes were written in 
December, the class having begun the October before. 
Teacher — "Lift up your hand." Class (in concert and 
suiting the action to the word) — "I lift up my hand." T. — 
" Lift up your right hand, your left hand, both hands. Shut 
your right eye, your left eye, both eyes." The pupils obeyed 
each command of the teacher, telling at the same time what 
each was doing. T. — " Where is your nose, your cheek, 
your chin ? " Pupils — " This is my nose," etc. T. — 
" Point to the ceiling, the floor," and so on through various 
parts of and objects in the class room. Pupils — "I point 
to the ceiling, the floor," etc. One boy was called up before 
the class to go through the same process. Then the practice 
was varied by going around the class, each pupil telling his 
neighbor to perform some one of these actions, the boy doing 
as he was told and at the same time telling what he was 
doing. This was followed by short dictation of five or six 
lines, afterwards corrected by the writers with the open text 
before them. The memory work for the day was " Baa, baa, 
black sheep," first recited in concert and then by three or 
four individually, the teacher's corrections being almost 
exclusively applied to the latter. This collective work, which 
by the way is most inconsiderately used by many of the 
direct method teachers, is more objectionable in modern 
language work than in most subjects, for the details of 
pronunciation are nowhere else so important. In more than 
one English class that I visited where this concert method 
was in use, I was absolutely unable to catch more than an 
isolated word or phrase. Under these conditions it is per- 
fectly evident that the teacher could not notice and correct 
even a fair share of the individual errors. In this class in 



MODERN LANGUAGES 233 

question, the last quarter of the hour was devoted to a very 
well developed preparation for the next lesson, which was on 
the progressive form of the verb. 

In a third form class, this conversational method follows 
along much the same general lines, but it is no longer mere 
parrot work, and correspondingly more is required of the 
class, as the following example will indicate : Teacher (in 
preparation for the next day's memory work) — "I will read 
the next lesson by myself." Class (in concert) — " You will 
read the next lesson by yourself." T. — "I will read it first, 
and you will read it after me." Class — " You will read it 
first, and we will read it after you." The teacher then read 
the whole stanza through, afterwards reading one line at a 
time and having the class read after him. Then he read it 
all through again, the class doing likewise, and finally the 
teacher went over it once more, carefully explaining in 
English all the new or difficult expressions. 

The most advanced and in many respects the best work 
I saw was in a higher rhetoric form, a class preparing for 
the normal school. The teacher, although a Frenchman 
born and bred, who, as I afterwards learned, had never spent 
more than a few weeks at a time in England, had a perfect 
mastery of English, so much so that at the end of the two 
hours spent in his class I was utterly unable to determine 
whether he were English or French. It was an unprepared 
lesson, which reproduced as nearly as possible the conditions 
of the examination the pupils would have to face at the end 
of the year. The text chosen was King Henry IV., Pt. II , 
Act IV., Scene v. Each one was given fifteen minutes to 
look over his assignment of ten or twenty lines. He read 
it through in English, then explained the text, interpreting 
the figures and allusions, and commenting upon peculiarities 
of form or expression that seemed to him necessary. In 
case of important omissions the teacher asked for explana- 
tion of particular words or phrases. Finally the pupil trans- 
lated the whole into the best French at his command. 
Aside from the last translation, the work was entirely in 



234 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

English, and barring certain weaknesses in pronunciation 
and inflection, it was all remarkably good. It must be 
noted in passing that these fellows were not ordinary lyc^e 
pupils, for they were all one or two years beyond their 
baccalaureate, and had consequently been studying English 
for seven or eight years ; they formed one of a number of 
preliminary groups from which the modern language teach- 
ers of five or six years hence would be recruited. 

It is still too early to pass judgment on the definite re- 
sults obtained under the application of the new method, for 
this year, 1908, is the first time when one will 
find pupils coming up for the baccalaureate 
that have been trained exclusively under this system. As 
far as one is able to judge from the expressions of indi- 
vidual teachers, I find very general satisfaction with the 
scheme, but, of course, the details of the method must be 
worked out each one for himself in accordance with the 
teacher's peculiar temperament and capability, and then 
adapted to fit the needs and capacity of the particular class. 
One of the general inspectors in collating the criticisms of 
his subordinates and in commenting thereon expresses gene- 
ral satisfaction with the results and assembles the criticisms 
under three heads :^ (1) the lack of homogeneity in the 
classes ; (2) the increased strain upon the teacher; and (3) the 
shortcomings due to a misapprehension of the programs 
and the official directions, on the lack of emphasis on the 
grammatical instruction, as well as a neglect of the culture 
aspect in the higher classes. The first of these, being due 
fundamentally to a failure to treat modern language instruc- 
tion as seriously as that in most of the other subjects of the 
curriculum, is quite apart from the method itself. The 
remedies suggested by the inspector — to set rigorous pro- 
motion examinations, and to create supplementary classes 
for the weak pupils — will only palliate an evil primarily 

' Eapport d'un inspcdeur gdndral. Situation dc V enseigiiement des langiics 
vivant.cs dans V cnseignemcnt secondaire en 1905-1906. Revue universitaire, 
1907, II., pp. 93-109. 



MODERN LANGUAGES 235 

due to other causes. However valuable auxiliary aid these 
devices might render, the permanent cure can be effected 
only by abolishing the modern language study in the lower 
forms or else instituting it at least optionally in the corre- 
sponding classes in the primary schools. The other two 
criticisms, on the contrary, are intimately associated with the 
method itself. The nervous strain upon the teacher must 
always be reckoned with, for to the increased effort in 
speaking in a foreign tongue must be added the further 
responsibility for helping the pupils think likewise in a 
strange idiom and express themselves correctly. This is all 
carried on practically without respite for the whole hour. 
From my own observation, the teachers that apply the 
method most consistently are the most exhausted at the 
end of the hour. The weakness upon the grammatical side 
is undoubtedly due to a misunderstanding of directions, but 
where the test comes exclusively upon ability to speak and 
write correctly, imperfections here become more readily ap- 
parent. The lack of literary culture in the higher classes is 
a well founded and serious objection, at least as the method 
is applied at present, and one that cannot be entirely or 
even in large measure attributed to misunderstanding on the 
part of the teachers. It is to be hoped that the vital char- 
acter of the criticism will result in a more liberal application 
of the official instructions so as to permit a greater erophasis 
upon reading and correspondingly less upon conversation 
during the third period.^ The report above cited signalizes 
a disquieting tendency on the part of Spanish and Italian, 
particularly the former, to displace the English and, to a 
less extent, the G-erman in some of the southern schools. 
The reason assigned by the local inspector is due to the 
" application of the law of the minimum of effort." The 

1 There are already evidences that, although the official regulations have 
not been modified, the authorities are not calling for a strict interpretation of 
the letter of the law quite so confidently as heretofore. It is even rumored in 
more than one quarter that the general inspectors have experienced a change 
of heart since the meeting of the Association of Modern Language Teachers 
in Decemter, 1907. 



236 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

German, required by so many of the higher government 
schools, is not likely to suffer materially, but there is already 
serious question of restricting the encroachment of these 
Eomance languages, perhaps even by reducing them to the 
role of the second language studied, and so confining them 
to the second cycle of the course. In the words of one of 
the academy inspectors, " One is already beginning to ask 
one's self if, after having caused this Spanish infiltration, 
measures will not have to be taken to 'dike it out.'" 



ERRATUM 



(Omission under PMloso^phy and Mathematics Forms, p. 223.) 

GERMAN AUTHORS READ IN THE PHILOSOPHY AND 
MATHEMATICS FORMS 

(Philosophy A, 2 hours, optional ; Mathematics A, 2 hours ; Philosophj- B 
and Mathematics B, 1 hour, and 2 hours additional, distributed accord- 
ing to the choice of the pupils.) 

German. Extracts from the critics, historians, and philosophers : Lessing, 
Herder, Winckelmann, Humbold, W. and F. Schlegel, L. Borne, W. Scherer. 
— Niebuhr, L. von Ranke, Fr. von Rauraer, Droysen, Mommsen, H. von Sybel, 
Gregorovius, Janssen, Treitschke. — Kant, Schelling, Fichte, Hegel, Schleier- 
macher, D. F. Strauss, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc. Selections from con- 
temporary poets : Anzengruber, K. Busse, Geibel, Gilra, Greif, Hamerling, 
Henckell, Hebbel, G. Hauptmann, P. Heyse, Lilieucron, H. Lingg, K. F. 
Meyer, Th. Storm, Wildenbruch, etc. 



CHAPTER XI 

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 

However important a part history plays in the secondary 
school program to-day, this progress has in large measure 
been a development of the last hundred years. „. , 

^ •' History 

The amount of historical knowledge in the before the 
possession of the college student at the time ReTOlution. 
of the Revolution was decidedly limited. *'A Frenchman 
of a century ago thought himself sufficiently informed if 
he was acquainted with the annals of his own country, with 
those of Judea, of Greece and of Rome, and with those of 
the different European people, but with these latter only so 
far as they directly concerned us." ^ Yet if one confines him- 
self to inferences from the printed programs, this modest 
amount is certainly not an overstatement of the case. Even 
this was too often mere formal memorizing of historical 
facts, learned in strict catechetical form.^ 

The Ratio studiorum contains no mention of history as 
a regular subject of instruction. Aside from the passing 
attention it may have received in discussing rpj^^ clerical 
the subject matter of the historians, it was Teaching 
evidently treated with but slight consideration, 
for it was accorded a place only on holidays.^ The absolute 

1 Frary, La question du latin, p. 230. 

2 See Le Ragois {Pricepteur de Monseigneur le Due du Maine), Instruction 
sur I'histoire de France et romaine, Paris, nouvelle Edition, 1777. This text- 
book written by Le Ragois, preceptor of the Due du Maine, son of Louis XIV., 
first appeared in 1684. It certainly enjoyed more than passing popularity for 
it went through numerous editions and save for additions demanded by the 
progress of the years appeared substantially in its original form as late as 1830. 

® Ratio studiorum in Gerard, op. cit., II., p. 285. 



238 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

neglect of all modern history was due to no oversight on 
the part of the Jesuit fathers, but rather to a desire to elimi- 
nate from the program all subjects that might give rise 
to controversial discussions likely to disturb the tranquillity 
of the absolute control, intellectual as well as physical, 
exercised by the superiors. Their more liberal minded 
rivals, the Oratorians, however, assigned it a place more in 
keeping with its importance. From the very first, these 
latter schools seem to have had a special teacher of history 
and to have encouraged the study of modern as well as 
of ancient history. In fact the national history occupied 
three of the best years of the course, and, what is more 
noteworthy still, the instruction was given in the vernacular. 
Even as early as this, geography was a companion study to 
history. At Juilly, probably the most famous of the schools 
of the Oratorians, the first two years were devoted to sacred 
history, the next three to the study of Greece and Eome, 
and the last year to that of France.^ Unsatisfactory though 
this course may be with its unnatural emphasis upon Greece 
and Eome, it marks a point considerably in advance of that 
actually reached by the university colleges nearly a century 
and a half later. History occupied a yet larger place in 
Arnauld's study plan for the Port-Eoyal schools,^ being 
found in every class, both morning and afternoon, from the 
sixth to the rhetoric inclusive. The geography which 
accompanied it appeared only in the fifth, fourth, and third 
forms. Pierre Coustel, sometime a teacher at Port-Eoyal, 
and consequently reflecting something of the spirit of the 
education there, in enumerating geography among a group 
of sciences of which one must have at least a smattering, 
maintains that it is not only pleasant and useful, but " it is 
also absolutely necessary for all who aspire to sound 
learning," 2 useful alike for the merchant and the soldier, 

1 Adry, quoted in Hamel, Histoirc de Vahhaye et du colUgc de Juilly, 
p. 221. 

2 GRfiARD, op. ciL, II., pp. 286-287. 

^ Coustel, Les regies dc I' 6ducatio7i dcs en/ants, 1687, II., p. 214. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 239 

and indispensable for intelligent reading of sacred or secular 
literature. History to him meant something more than 
biblical and ancient history. France, Italy, and Spain were 
important enough to be given a place, and to these were to 
be added, if time permitted, Hungary, the Turks, Poland, 
Sweden, and Denmark. Furthermore he distinguished 
between reading an historian to ascertain what he said, and 
reading him in order to discover the real truth. In the 
latter case a critical and comparative study was mandatory .^ 
With Eollin a narrower humanistic influence prevailed, 
for he presents the curious anomaly of deliberately neglect- 
ing the very history whose value he admits. 

-p 11- 1 

In offering the lack of time as his sole excuse Rolknd 
for this omission he urges the necessity of 
inspiring in young men such a taste for the history of their 
own country that they shall be impelled to study it later 
when they will have more leisure.^ Surely a most specious 
and dangerous line of reasoning to set before young people, 
for how many of the lists of books collected with such 
infinite pains are ever even looked at again ! More than 
half a century later EoUand criticised most bitterly the plan 
that had long prevailed in the university colleges by which 
the pupils had history of the Old Testament in the sixth 
form, mythology in the fifth, Eoman history in the fourth, 
Greek history and geography in the third form, Bossuet's 
Discourse on Universal History, the revolution in Portugal, 
the Venetian confederacy, Montesquieu's Grandeur of the 
Eomans, and a brief history of France in the second form.*^ 
In demanding the reform of what he called an " abuse " he 
was merely voicing an opinion that was already becoming 
rife. Eolland himself went a step further and wanted to 
see local history introduced into each college, wherein the 
young men should be taught the memorable actions of the 
citizens of their own province with the hope that these 

1 CousTEL, op. cit., II., p. 237. 

2 RoLLiN, Traits des ehides, ed. 1881, II., p. 164. 
8 RoLLAND, Plan d'education, note, pp. 103-104. 



240 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

might serve as an inspiration to them to emulate the deeds 
of their ancestors. The course of history suggested by 
EoUand, extending from the sixth through the rhetoric (or 
first) form, is thus more comprehensive than any we have 
heretofore encountered, surpassing in extent and variety 
even that followed in the schools at Port-Eoyal. 

Almost without exception, history is recognized in the 
numerous projects for reorganizing the system of public in- 
struction that came up for discussion before the 

durino* the various bodies of the revolutionary period. The 

Nineteenth so-called decree of Eomme, October 20, 1793,^ 
"^^ ^'^ ■ contained an elaborate classification of history, 
dividing it into naval, political, industrial, and commercial, 
and emphasized its importance " for perfecting our industry 
and resources." History likewise appears on the program 
of the Central Schools, but seems strangely to have been 
slighted in the course of the military section of the Prytance 
in 1801. Geography, which had formed a kind of unnamed 
subject of instruction for generations and latterly had served 
as a handmaid to history, finds a distinct place for itself in 
the original program of 1802.^ For the time being it over- 
shadowed the history, for it was taught in four of the eight 
classes as against three for the latter subject. The second 
lyc^e program seven years later deprived the geogi-aphy of 
its temporary advantage, relegating it to the subordinate place 
it has continued to occupy ever since that time. 

In the years immediately following the restoration of the 
monarchy there seems to have been a sudden awakening in 
historical thought, at least as far as the schools were con- 
cerned, which corresponds very closely to a similar move- 
ment in our American colleges. The program of 1814,^ 
in lengthening the morning and afternoon classes, from the 
first of April until the end of the school year, from two hours 
to two hours and a half, prescribed that the half hour so gained 

1 Gb^ard, op. cit., annexes, II, p. 240. 

2 Ihid., pp. 246-247. 
8 Ihid., pp. 248-249. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 241 

should be exclusively devoted to geography and history. Four 
years later two arretes were passed, one in the spring and 
the other in the fall, entirely reorganizing the history course. 
The sacred history and the geography in the sixth form re- 
mained undisturbed, and continued to be taught by the regu- 
lar class teacher as before. From the fifth form upward, 
however, the work was put in charge of a specialist (a change 
that figures again in the reform of 1902 after many years of 
a different regime). In the fifth form, the program called 
for great epochs of ancient history, in the fourth, for Eoman 
history up to the Battle of Actium, in the third, for the 
period from Augustus to Charlemagne, in the second, for 
from Charlemagne to modern times, and in the rhetoric form, 
for history of France. Throughout the course, history had two 
lessons of an hour each per week, but it was compelled to 
share this time with geography. The second regulation of 
that same year introduced general history in the second 
form, thus entailing a slight modification in the work of the 
earlier years. In 1826, the ancient history introduced into 
the sixth form included, in addition to sacred history, the 
history of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and Greece. Geography 
had in the meantime been carried down as low as the eighth 
form. With the extension of sacred history to the eighth 
form four years later, we find history and geography practi- 
cally covering the entire secondary course, a state of affairs 
that has continued, though not without frequent and in some 
cases radical modifications, until this very day. There have 
been various attempts to correlate these two subjects of in- 
struction, notably in the plan presented by Villemain in 1843, 
and again in the reform under Minister Duruy a little more 
than twenty years later. In the main, however, each subject 
has been developed independently of the other, both follow- 
ing the lines of the logical order of instruction, the chief 
bond between them being that they were taught by the 
same teacher. By 1874, the amount of time devoted to 
history and geography, which had been increasing slowly 
and haltingly, reached three hours per week for each class 

16 



242 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

from the very beginning up through the philosophy form. 
The new program has increased this time allotment some- 
what in several of the sections of the second cycle, but the 
most significant changes appear in the fundamental reorgan- 
ization of the subject matter. 

The old program had been formulated on the assump- 
tion that once the secondary school laid hold of a boy, he 
was a fixture there until the end of the course. The course 
of study apparently took no cognizance of the possibility that 
he might leave before completing the work, and it certainly 
offered no encouragement to anybody to come in from the 
outside after the course was once begun. The whole scheme 
was logically planned in such a fashion that it could be cut 
at neither end without serious and perhaps fatal detriment to 
the pupil, at least as far as carrying away any well rounded 
notions of the unity of historical progress was concerned. 
The new program has succeeded in obviating these two 
fundamental defects by a single device which is none other 
than the concentric circle plan already pursued for some time 
in the primary school course. 

Under the program of 1890, the history of the sixth 
form began with Egypt, and thence covered the rest of the 
ancient world down to the beginning of Greek 
^tte CourL°^ history. Greece furnished the subject matter of 
the fifth form, Eome of the fourth, and France 
and Europe, down to 1789, were distributed chronologically 
over the work of the thii'd, second, and rhetoric forms. In 
the philosophy form, France was treated at length from 1789 
to 1889, together with some slight attention to the rest of 
Europe, England, and the United States. Under the new 
program the work of each of the two cycles is as nearly 
as possible complete in itself. Thus the boy that leaves the 
lyc^.e at the completion of the third form, has covered all the 
history of the world from ancient Egypt down to his own 
day. Not only has he gained some notions of the people 
that lived before the Christian era, but furthermore in his 
last and for him most important year, he has come to know 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 243 

that Italy, Germany, Austria, England, the Balkan States, 
and the United States, to say nothing of the nations of the 
Orient, each has a past, and each is making history as well as 
his own native land, a fact that many of our American high 
school pupils are likely to ignore. The course in geography 
has been made similarly comprehensive. 

For the boy who passes through all the classes from the 
preparatory form up through the philosophy, this arrange- 
ment works no detriment. To be sure he goes over the 
history of France three separate times, but each time it is 
presented from a different point of view, and one correspond- 
ing to his superior intellectual development, a method which 
merely duplicates the child's normal way of getting in touch 
with the world about him. 

The new program limits the biographical stories of the 
preparatory class to the heroes of the national history, and 
also bridges over the gap that formerly existed in the work 
of the seventh form by carrying the work down from 1805 
to 1871. In the second cycle, the modern history which is 
common to all four sections begins with the tenth century 
and is carried down to the present. The C and D section 
pupils thus cover the earlier history only once, but the A 
and B sections review the history of Greece, Eome, and the 
other ancient nations, in a special two-hour course extend- 
ing over the second and first forms. The work of the 
philosophy-mathematics form is in some respects the richest 
of the whole course. It is closely connected with geography 
throughout and practically gives a survey of all modern his- 
tory from the restoration of the monarchy in France after 
the fall of Napoleon down to the events of yesterday. The 
extent of the field covered necessarily makes the work more 
or less encyclopaedic in its character, but it offers a magnifi- 
cent opportunity to show the enormous development that 
has taken place during the nineteenth century and the inter- 
relation and interdependence existing among the various 
peoples of the world. 

In the beginning class as well as in the two years of the 



244 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

preparatory division, the history is almost exclusively anec- 
dotal and biographical, drawing its subject matter indiffer- 
ently from the domains of true and legendary 

ourse m jjigtorv. One might rather call it a story tell- 
Lower Grades. . •' . -, . -, t t -t ^ 

mg class m which the children have to recount 

to the teacher the narrations he has told them. The geogra- 
phy during these same three years is treated in a less happy 
fashion, for its formal side is constantly emphasized. In the 
third year the child is lost in a maze of geographical terms, 
mountains, rivers, seas, gulfs, isthmuses, straits, cliffs, defined 
in most abstract fashion, and only shown to the eye on a 
wall chart picturing these and many more, all huddled to- 
gether in most unnatural and appalling confusion. The 
ordinary teacher in the lower grades shows himself strangely 
unable to take advantage of the coimtless concrete situations 
of the life lying outside his very door in order to vitalize 
this elementary geography teaching. Home geography in the 
best sense of the word finds no place in this program. 

The more formal study of history and geography begins in 
the eighth form, the first class of the elementary division : ^ 



EIGHTH FORM 
History and Geography, 3 Hours a Week 

History. Summary notions of the history of France, emphasizing the 
essential facts, from the beginning down to 1610. Brief summaries dic- 
tated by the teacher and recited by the pupih Short examinations, 
simple narratives repeated orally by the pupil. 

Geography. Elementary notions of general geography. The ocean. 
Hot and cold countries. Elementary descriptions of the five grand 
divisions. Form and extent of the continents. Principal countries 
with their capitals. Simple map drawing at the board and in the 
note books. 

^ Lack of space prevents giving the official programs in full. For the 
eighth and seventh forms, only the general subject of the 3'ear's work is 
indicated. Beginning with the sixth form, the topical headings are given. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 245 

SEVENTH FORM 

HiSTOBY AND GEOGRAPHY, 3 HoURS 

History. Summary history of France in the modem and contem- 
porary period from 1610 to 1871. Brief summaries dictated. Simple 
narratives. Short explanations. [With very few exceptions, the sub- 
jects indicated on the detailed program are conlined to the arts of war, 
campaigns, and the rise and fall of empire.] 

Geography. Elementary geography of France and her colonies. 
Physical geography of France. Old provinces and departments. Cities. 
City, department, and region where pupU lives. Means of communi- 
cation. Colonies. Free-hand map drawing. 

The work thus far constitutes the first stage of the 
course. It covers substantially the same ground as that 
in the public primary schools, although it is 
not handled in quite the same fashion. If ^"sliSteS. 
by any chance, a boy were compelled to stop 
his schooling at this point, he would carry away with 
him a fairly good notion of the world in general and of 
France in particular, and he would have become ac- 
quainted with the principal facts of the history of his 
own country down to the close of the Franco-Prussian 
war. With this general background the sixth form pupil 
is ready to undertake the further study of history and 
geography in accordance with the more logically developed 
programs of the secondary course proper. 

SIXTH FORM 

History and Geography, 3 Hoixrs 

(Program common to Divisions A and B) 

History. I. Ancient. Egypt, Chaldea, and Assyria. Jews, Phoe- 
nicians, Persians. 

II. Greece. Troy to Alexander's conquest of Asia. 

III. Italy. Etruscans to Csesar's conquest of Gaul. 

IV. Augustus to Theodosius. 

Geography. I. General geography. The globe; relief; ocean; 
atmosphere; rain; climate; coasts; animal and vegetable life; man. 
II. Polar regions. America: physical, political, and economic geog- 



246 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

raphy (Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentine Repub- 
lic). Australasia: Australia, New Zealand, principal archipelagoes of 
the Pacific (Oceanica is taken up in conjunction with Asia). 



FIFTH FORM 

History and Geography, 3 Hours 

(Program common to Divisions A and B) 

History, The Middle Ages and the beginning of modem history. 

I. Gaul, ancient and Roman. The invasions. Franks. Arabs. 
Frankish empire. France. England. Germany. 

II. The church in the Middle Ages. Crusades. Society. Western 
civilization. 

III. The Valois and the Hundred Years' War. France in the four- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries. Europe at the end of the fifteenth 
century. 

Geography. Asia and Oceanica. Africa. Physical, political, and 
economic geography. Relations with Europe and America. 

FOURTH FORM 

History and Geography, 3 Hours 

(Program common to Divisions A and B) 

History. Modern times. 

I. Maritime discoveries and establishment of colonies. Renaissance. 
Western Europe at the end of the fifteenth century. Struggle between 
France and Austria. Reformation. Rehgious wars. Characters and 
results of the Thirty Years' War. 

II. Establishment of the absolute monarchy in France. Louis XIV. 
Society of the seventeenth centtiry. French art, seventeenth century. 
England, seventeenth century. 

III. France under Louis XV. England in the eighteenth century. 
Prussia. Austria. Russian Empire. Foreign politics in the eighteenth 
century. France before the Revolution. Louis XVI. 

Geography. Europe. Physical, political, and economic geography; 
area and population of the principal countries. Means of international 
communication. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 247 

THIRD FORM 

History and Geography, 3 Hours 

(Program common to Divisions A and B) 

History. Contemporary history. 

I. The old regime in France. States General and Constitutional 
Assembly. Republic. Transformation of French society. Struggle 
against Europe. Consulate. Empire. Napoleon's foreign policy. 
Congress of Vienna. 

II. Restoration. Louis Philippe. Arts, letters, and sciences in 
France in the first half of the nineteenth century. 

III. Second Republic. Second Empire. Unification of Italy. Unifi- 
cation of Germany. The Eastern question in the nineteenth century. 

IV. Commercial and industrial progress. European expansion. 
The Orient. 

V. England. German Empire. Austro-Hungary. Russia. United 
States in the nineteenth centm-y. France from 1870 to 1889. 

VI. Government of France in the nineteenth century. 

Geography. France and her colonies. Physical, political, and 
economic geography. 

At the end of the first cycle the pupil finds himself back 
very nearly at the same point he left four years before. In 
re-covering the same circuit, he has gone further character- 
afield, he has thrown aside the restrictions of istics of the 
the former " drum and trumpet " history, he ^^"^^^ ^y^^®- 
has traversed a domain where wars and rumors of wars, em- 
pires and dynasties, no longer constitute the only salient 
features of historical development. He has gone back to 
the beginning of known history, and has followed the evolu- 
tion of human progress from ancient Egypt down to the 
nations of the present day. Not one of the great contempo- 
rary powers has been neglected; his interests have been 
centered, if only briefly, upon China and Japan in their 
relation to the development of the far East; and the last 
general topic, with its treatment of the central government, 
universal suffrage, the press, the democracy, popular instruc- 
tion, obligatory military service, and labor legislation since 
1848, has put him in close touch with recent developments 
and with some of the future problems of his own political life. 



248 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

From the sixtli form up the history and geography in each 

class are confided to a special teacher, whereas in the lower 

forms these as well as the other ordinary sub- 

^mstorV^ jects are all handled by the class teacher. 
There is consequently a marked difference in 
the method of treatment that is even more noticeable than 
one is likely to encounter in passing from our grammar to 
our high schools. In the elementary division the teacher 
has followed a narrative method, telling the story to the 
pupils, and at the end of the hour dictating a summary of 
the essential points he has covered. The note book that 
contains these summaries thus constitutes the history text- 
book. From the sixth form upward it is almost exclusively 
a lecture method. The first twenty or thirty minutes of the 
hour are usually devoted to questions on the new work of 
the previous day. Few pupils are called upon, but each one 
is put through a searching interrogatory. These questions, 
however, are purely fact questions, never, so far as my ex- 
perience goes, calling for any independent reflection on the 
part of the pupil. The last part of the hour is devoted to a 
purely formal lecture on the advance work. The boys take 
this down in their note books, and it serves as the basis of 
the question period the next time. These note books are on 
the whole remarkably neat and well kept. Occasionally 
one finds them embellished with picture postal cards repre- 
senting historical buildings, the military and social dress of 
the period in question, in addition to the ordinary maps and 
sketches put on the board by the teacher. There is appar- 
ently no uniform practice as regards the use of text-books. 
Some classes have them, and some do not, but on the whole 
their use seems to be spreading, especially in the lower 
classes. The older teachers who have long depended upon 
the out and out lecture method are naturally slow to adopt 
a class text-book. The presence or absence of these, how- 
ever, has no very appreciable effect on the method. A 
teacher belonging to the former group used the book merely 
as a point of departure. In the presentation of the partic- 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 249 

ular lesson that I heard he covered sixteen pages of the 
text-book in his lecture, emphasizing the important points, 
and at the same time speaking slowly and deliberately 
enough for the class to take down almost every word he 
uttered. A teacher of the other group, in response to my 
question as to what would be the result of putting texts into 
the hands of his pupils, replied : " They would not do 
the work assigned. If they did they would fail to get the 
proper perspective, and would be likely to emphasize the 
less important events. Even a lazy fellow will carry away 
something from the oral presentation of the teacher." This 
lecture method assuredly puts the pupils in possession of 
the facts, but it is of little value in developing in them any 
ability to select the wheat from the chaff for themselves, 
to cultivate that discriminative judgment so essential for 
serious historical work. 

The general method in geography is substantially the 
same as that pursued in history, as is perhaps to be expected 
from the fact that both subjects are taught by 

,1 - 1 ^ , • T Geom-aphy. 

the same teacher. On one or two occasions 1 
also found the picture postal cards very intelligently applied 
to the teaching of geography. One enthusiastic teacher 
whose boys happened to be studying Switzerland and the 
Alps country had a fine collection of cards illustrating the 
geographical features of that region hanging on the wall at 
the front of the class. Much of the geography teaching in 
the lower forms, however, was decidedly dry and formal. 

The program for the history and geography in the first 
cycle is as follows: 

SECOND FORM 

Modern History, 2 Hours 

(Program common to Sections A, B, C, and D) 

I. Europe from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Rise of the 
nations. Society. The church. Civilization. 

II. France from 1499 to 1559. European politics. Maritime discov- 
eries and establishment of colonies. Renaissance. Religious crisis of 



250 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the sixteenth century. General politics of Philip II. England under 
Elizabeth. Civil wars in France, 1559-1610. 

III. Establishment of the absolute monarchy in France. European 
politics, 1610-1660. The United Provinces in the seventeenth century. 
England, 1603-1660. 

IV. England, 1660-1714. Louis XIV., absolute monarch. Foreign 
politics of Louis XIV. French society in the seventeenth century. 
Eastern Europe in the seventeenth century. Intellectual movement in 
Europe in the seventeenth century. 



Ancient History, 2 Hours 
(Program common to Sections A and B) 

T. Prehistoric times. Egypt. Chaldea. The Jews. Phoenicia. The 
Persians. 

II. Greece. Early times. Myths. Sparta. The tyrants. Athens, 
Greek colonization. Civilization up to the fifth century. Persian wars. 
Formation of the Athenian Empire. Athenian democracy. Pelopon- 
nesian war. Spartan supremacy. Theban supremacy. Macedonian 
supremacy. Extension of Greek influence. Final struggles in Greece. 

Geographt, 1 Hour 
(Program common to Sections A, B, C, and D) 

I. Discovery of the world. Geographical science. 

II. The world in the imiverse. The terrestrial globe in its present 
state. The solid element. The liquid element. The gaseous element. 
Streams. Coasts. Minerals. Flora and fauna. Modifications of the 
earth's surface. 

III. Man. Present population of the earth. Man and nature. 

IV. Principal features of economic geography of the globe. Food 
products. Textiles. Fuel. Precious and useful minerals. Present 
economic world. 

FIRST FORM 

Modern History, 2 Hours 

(Program common to Sections A, B, C, and D) 

I. France under Louis XV. England in the eighteenth century. 
Russian Empire in the eighteenth century. Prussia in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries. Austria in the eighteenth century. 
Continental politics, 1715-1763. Colonial politics. Rise of English 
colonies. The Eastern question up to 1795. General characteristics of 
the eighteenth century. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 251 

II. Louis XVI. France in 1789. Monarchical period of the Revo- 
lution. Republic. Struggle against Europe, 1792-1802. Consular and 
imperial government. Foreign politics of Napoleon. End of the Empire. 

Ancient History, 2 Hours 
(Program common to Sections A and B) 

I. Description of Italy. Primitive Rome. Religion. Roman army. 

II. Conquest of the Mediterranean basin. Consequences. Political 
life. Provincial administration. Gracchi. Marius and Sulla. Pompey. 
Caesar. End of the Republic. 

III. Augustus. The emperors. Roman Empire in the third century. 
Civilization under the Empire. Roman law. Christianity. Constan- 
tine. Last days of the Empire. 

IV. The barbarians. Prankish Gaul. Eastern church. Re-estab- 
lishment of the Empire. The Arabs. Byzantine Empire from the fifth 
to the tenth century. 

Geographt, 1 Hour 
(Program common to Sections A, B, C, and D) 

I. Geological constitution. Beginnings of the French nation. 

II. Study of France by great natural divisions. 

III. Administrative regime. Economic geography. 

IV. The colonies. France in its relation to the world. 



PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS FORMS 

History and Geography, 3 hours during one semester and 4 hours 
during the other, one of the hours each week being devoted to 
geography. 

(Program common to Philosophy A and B, and Mathematics A and B) 

History, Contemporary. I. Restoration in Europe. Constitu- 
tional monarchy in France. England up to 1848. Intellectual move- 
ment in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. 

II. Revolution of 1848 and the reaction. Second Empire. National 
wars. Eastern question. 

III. Catholic church. France, 1870-89. German Empire. Aus- 
tro-Hungary since 1860. England. Spain. Belgium. Switzerland. 
Russia in the nineteenth century. Intellectual movement during the 
second half of the nineteenth century. 

IV. Commercial and industrial progress. European powers in 
Africa; Asia; America. 

V. General characteristics of contemporary civilization : respect of 



252 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

person; religious liberty; political freedom; democracy; social doc- 
trines and labor legislation. 

Geographt. Principal powers of the world : British Isles ; Holland 
and Belgium; Germany; Switzerland; Austro-Hungary ; Italy; Rus- 
sian Empire; China and Japan; United States; Argentine Republic 
and Brazil. Principal means of communication. 

Thus for the third time the pupil completes his study of 
history and geography. The necessarily sketchy national 
Characteristics ^istory of the elementary classes has been 
of the Three elaborated and supplemented by the successive 
Periods. stages of the two cycles of the secondary course 
proper, and now France no longer stands forth as an isolated 
unity, but while retaining her national individuality, she ap- 
pears in her true light as intimately related to and closely 
dependent upon the other countries of the world. Through- 
out the whole course, at least of modern history, France has 
formed the point of departure, the background, so to speak, 
against which the developments in the other countries have 
been projected. These three stages are not simple reviews, 
though the warp and woof of the facts are necessarily the 
same, but each looks at the question from a different point 
of view from the preceding. One might characterize the 
dominant note of the history of the elementary period as 
biographical, gradually dissolving to militarj^ or dynastic ; 
that of the first cycle as political ; that of the second as social 
and economic. The following quotations from the official 
program will show the different method of treatment in the 
last two periods: 

THIRD FORM FIRST FORM 

The states general and the consti- The monarchical period of the 
tutional assembly. The constitu- Revolution. The states gen- 
tion of 1791. eral and the constitutional 

assembly. Abolition of the 
old regime. Transformation 
of French society by the Rev- 
olution. The constitution of 
1791. The legislative assem- 
bly; resistance of the king; 
formation of the republican 
party; fall of the monarchy. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 253 

THIRD FORM PHILOSOPHY FORM 

The Eastern question in the nine- The Eastern question. Disor- 
teenth century, ganization and dismember- 

ment of the Ottoman Empire ; 
formation of the Christian 
Balkan States. Crimean war. 
Balkan war. Congress of 
Berlin. The Balkan States 
since 1878; Austria a Balkan 
power. 

It is instructive to note that every boy in the French 
secondary school proper has a comprehensive course in 
history from the very earliest times down to 
the present day, with the period from the tenth ^^e course 
century covered twice. In addition to this, the 
Latin-Greek and the Latin-modern language pupils have a 
year of Greek and a year of Koman history during the sec- 
ond cycle. In the so-called graduate classes where the boys 
are preparing for the higher government schools those parts 
of the general field that are demanded by the entrance 
examination progi'ams are still further reviewed, but in most 
of these classes inasmuch as the examinations make little or 
no call on their candidates for independent interpretation, 
the work is treated from a narrower point of view. One 
prominent and successful history teacher in Paris frankly 
told me that the method in the classes he was preparing for 
the military school at Saint-Cyr differed widely from that 
followed in his other classes. " There is less attempt to 
develop the mind," he added, " than to fill it with information 
by way of preparation for the examinations," 

The general result of the geography program is much 
less satisfactory than the history. Although geography 
receives a trifle less than one half the time ^ , 

Ueoofraphv 

assigned to history, the distribution offers and its ' 
considerable ground for criticism. Of the Weakness, 
nine years devoted to the subject from the eighth form 
through the philosophy, France receives three years, gen- 
eral geography nearly that amount, commercial geography 



254 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

one year, Europe one year, and Asia, Oceanica, and Africa 
together, one year. America, Australasia, and the polar 
regions are assigned a portion of the sixth form work, 
which is chiefly devoted to general geography. Even where 
the program insists upon confining the political and eco- 
nomic geography of America to Canada, the United States, 
Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and the Argentine Republic, the time 
devoted to the United States cannot be very extensive. 
The United States figures again in the program of the phil- 
osophy form where it occupies one of the ten paragraphs 
devoted to the principal powers of the world. There is 
thus good basis for the implied question in a recent mag- 
azine article : " Take a bachelor of to-morrow and ask how 
much that young citizen at the end of his studies knows 
of that enormous power, so menacing for Europe of the 
twentieth century, the United States of America. " ^ The 
author pointedly continues : " The history program per- 
mits us to show men at work but we have too little in- 
formation about what they are working on." There is no 
question but that in the French schools geography suffers 
from its association with history ,2 for the method of the 

1 DuTiL, Sur V enseignement dc la geographic, in Revue imiversitairc, 1903, I., 
p. 249. Far more painful and serious defects appeared in the examination for 
the agr4gation in 1907. See Langlois, Agrigation d'histoire et g6ograpMe, 
concours 1907, in Revue universitaire, 1907, II., pp. 277-296. The geography- 
question in the written examination was : " Tlie Mississippi." M. Langlois 
characterizes the answers as "mediocre " and says that the characteristics of 
the river and the climate of the valley were the particular stumbling blocks. 
" A good half of the candidates did not know that the maximum rainfall oc- 
curred during the summer. Some thought that the Pacific was the source of 
the moisture, and one declared that the Rocky Mountains ' n' arretent nuUement 
les eaux des vents ])luvieux du nord-ouest.' " Another placed the source of 
the Mississippi in the Great Lakes, and explained at length their influence in 
regulating the flow. Such ignorance as this on the part of candidates for the 
teacher's certificate is vital. There is more than a mere question of fact in- 
volved, for the Mississip[)i Valley is the source of the greater part of the agri- 
cultural wealth of our country. AVhat accurate concejition of the significance 
of the results can there be in the face of such ignorance of the fundamental 
conditions ? 

2 ViDAL DE LA Blache, La Conception actuellc de V enseignement de la geo- 
graphic, in Conferences du, 3his6e pddagogique, 1905, p. 118. 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY 255 

latter dominates the former. History is essentially a sub- 
ject that must be studied at arm's length, so to speak. 
We can seldom come into personal relations with the 
great makers of history, or at least if we do, our ideas 
are almost inevitably distorted by our proximity. In his- 
tory, we need the perspective of time in order to assure sane, 
unbiassed judgments. Geography, on the other hand, is 
best studied by actual contact with the phenomena in 
question. Unfortunately, the conditions of school life 
make thorough application of this idea unattainable, but 
the resourceful teacher can find many opportunities for 
illuminating the dry pages of the text or lecture. There 
is absolutely no value in a child learning a verbal defini- 
tion of a spring or a river system, unless he has at the 
same time some clear conception of the natural phenome- 
non he is defining. Likewise it is much less important 
for him to be able to rattle off the names of the tribu- 
taries of the Seine, or to know that the silt carried down 
by the Loire amounts to 375 cubic meters in a certain 
unit of time, whereas in the Seine it is only 300 cubic 
meters, and in the Ehine 1,450, than it is to understand the 
influence of these tributaries and the significance of this silt 
as affecting the character of these streams and their use- 
fulness. There are gratifying evidences among the younger 
teachers of a tendency to depart from these traditional 
formal methods that many of the older men cling to most 
tenaciously, but the secondary school teachers of geography 
are yet considerably behind their fellows in the primary 
system in employing any such simple device as the stere- 
opticon for vitalizing their formal teaching. Too often 
they lose sight of the fact that each of the two subjects 
they are teaching has a method peculiarly its own, and they 
thereby neglect the specific admonition of the official 
instructions that "they should devote all their efforts 
not only to the teaching of the geography, but also to 
educating through the geography. " ^ The hopeful sign 

1 InstriMtions concernant les programmes de V enseignement classique, p. cvi. 



256 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

about this whole matter is that many teachers are chafing 
under a situation that is already becoming intolerable. 
One ingenious writer ^ suggests the appointment of an 
assistant master or probationer in every school who should 
supplement the class work of the regular history and ge- 
ography teacher just as the modern language assistants do 
in their department. This, as well as most of the sug- 
gestions to ameliorate the situation, is merely a makeshift. 
To effect a permanent cure, either the program must be 
considerably restricted or the time substantially increased. 

1 Machat, Laclasse cCuneheure en giograpJiie, in Hevue universitaire, 1906, 
II., p. 100. 



CHAPTEE XII 

MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 

Satukated with humanistic ideas, and dominated by the 
spirit of classicism as it was, it is little wonder that the col- 
lege curriculum before the Kevolution gave t, i c. • 

. -,, . . . ^, Early Scien- 

practically no place to instruction m mathe- tific Instruc- 
matics and the sciences. These two subjects *^'''^- 
were stretching toward each other, — the one from the simple 
arithmetic of the elementary instruction, and the other from 
the physics of the philosophy course in superior instruction, 
until the connecting link as represented by algebra and ge- 
ometry should be slipped into place in the colleges. Abbd 
Fleury, writing in 1686, complained that arithmetic was 
begun too early, and recommended that it should be post- 
poned until the " reason was entirely formed, as at ten or 
twelve years of age." ^ In the Jesuit schools, since the great 
majority of the pupils left at the end of the rhetoric form, 
there was comparatively very little training in the scientific 
disciplines, the latter being reserved for the philosophy 
course. This extended over three years: the first devoted 
to logic, the second to physics and mathematics, and the 
third to metaphysics.2 The physics, exclusively the physics 
of Aristotle, and therefore in the hands of the professor of 
philosophy, made up the major part of the second year's 

1 Fleury, TraiU dio choix et de la mMhode des 4tudes, Paris, 1686, p. 180. 
In those days the arithmetic consisted of the four fundamental rules, the 
pupils heing taught "to reckon with counters and with the pen, ... to 
handle the weights and measures in common use. . . . Later he came to the 
more difficult rules, . . . and finally, if time and ability permitted, he was 
taught the science of proportions." 

2 Ratio atque institutio studiorum societatis Jesu, 1603, pp. 84-86. 

17 



258 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

work. The relatively msignificant amount of mathematics 
was chiefly Euclid, eked out with " some notions of geogra- 
phy and of the sphere."^ Mathematics and science were 
quite beyond the reach of the influences tending to modify 
instruction in the humanistic branches during the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Eevolution found 
them practically as the Ratio studiorum had left them nigh 
upon two hundred years before. Physics was intimately 
associated with philosophy, and mathematics, since it was 
looked upon as essential for engineers and architects, and so 
of use for only a small number of those preparing for profes- 
sional life, was excluded from the ordinary course of study 
and left for institutions of special instruction.^ At the end 
of the old regime, mathematics and science as subjects of 
general instruction had made little progress. In 1782 Eol- 
land enumerated very few institutions that were offering 
special instruction in these subjects. He cites : chairs of 
mathematics at the College Mazarin and at Tours (1779); 
one of experimental physics at the College de Navan-e in 
Paris, and two but just founded in Toulouse and Montpellier 
respectively (1782). To these he adds a chair in hydrogra- 
phy established the year previous at the college in Kouen, 
and one in natural history at the College Eoyal (the College 
of France).^ A professor of mathematics and one of natural 
history had also been appointed a few years before at the 
College of Saint-Omer in Flanders. By this time the course 
in philosophy had been cut to two years, the physics sharing 
the time with logic, metaphysics, and ethics. Instruction in 
all of these four subjects was given in Latin, and the scho- 

1 liaiio atque institutio studiorum. societatis Jesti, 1603, p. 93. "Physicae 
aiulitoribus explicet in schola tribus circiter horae quadrantibiis Eudidis ele- 
menta : In quibus postqnam per duos menses aliqiiantisper versati fuerint, 
aliquid geographiae vel sphaerae, vel eoruni, quae libenter audiri solent, ad- 
jungat : idque cum Euclide, vel eodem die, vel alternis diebus." This pro- 
gram was practically unchanged until 1832, when modifications were 
introduced in order to enable the Jesuits to compete with schools giving 
modern scientific instruction. 

2 GuTTON DE MoRVEAU, Mimoirc sur VMucation publique, 1764, p. 265. 
^ RoLLAND, Fla7i d'iducaiion, p. 117. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 259 

lastic method of the Middle Ages still persisted,^ The Revo- 
lution, with its abolition of the old order of things, opened 
the way for the entrance of the scientific subjects into the 
secondary school curriculum. 

Talleyrand's bill, the first great scheme introduced into 
the legislative assembly for educational reorganization, only 
reproduced the old ideals in a modified form. „ , 
In the sprmg or the toilowmg year Condorcet Eevolt against 
ran quite to the opposite extreme, and his pro- Classicism. 
ject represents the almost absolute subordination of letters to 
science. The program of his Instituts, corresponding to 
the secondary schools of to-day, contained little else than 
scientific instruction, — science, mathematical and physical ; 
science, moral and political ; science pure ; and science applied 
to the fine arts and to the occupations of every-day life, — 
the dream of an extremist, but nevertheless the inevitable 
reaction in the mind of one of the great revolutionists against 
the narrow humanism of the Jesuits and the old university. 
He shows the radical nature of his position in saying that 
" science is the surest means for developing the intellectual 
faculties ; for teaching accurate reasoning and correct analysis 
of the thought ; " . . . that " against prejudice, against nar- 
rowness of mind, science furnishes a remedy more universal, 
if not more trustworthy, than philosophy itself;" . . . and 
the books of the ancient languages, filled as they are with 
inaccuracies, are more likely to be a hindrance than a help 
in developing the reason.^ The subsequent schemes of edu- 
cational reform presented to the various revolutionary bodies 
vacillated between these two extremes, though the prevailing 
tendency was naturally toward the more radical attitude. 
The breach in the old humanism had been made, and the 
entrance of scientific studies into the secondary program 
was henceforth easy. 

1 RoLLAND, Plan d'^ducation, p. 114. 

2 Condorcet, Rapport et projet de d4cret sur Vorganisaiion gin4rale de 
V instruction puhlique. Reprinted in Hippeau, L' instruction publique en 
France pendant la Revolution, p. 203 et seq. 



260 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Inasmuch as scientific studies were already monopolizing 
one of the three sections of the course in the Central Schools, 
Science in the ^^ could not have been entirely unexpected 
Secondary when Napoleon decreed (1802) that the sub- 
°"'^^®' jects of the new lyc^e curriculum should be 
essentially Latin and mathematics.^ There were six classes 
in each subject which could be covered in three years, but 
the two lowest classes in Latin formed a necessary introduc- 
tion to the lowest class in mathematics. In the beginning 
Latin class, the classical teacher taught ciphering, and in 
the succeeding class, the "four rules of arithmetic," thus 
serving the double purpose of acquainting the Latin pupils 
with the essential elements of arithmetical knowledge, and 
of giving the mathematical pupils the fundamental princi- 
ples upon which their subsequent work could be based. 
This science course included besides mathematics : natural 
history, physics, astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy. At the 
conclusion of this regular program, there was a two-year 
additional course in mathematics, known as mathematiqiies 
transcendantes, which treated in the first year the applica- 
tion of differential calculus to mechanics and the theory of 
fluids, and the application of geometry to plan and map 
drawing; and in the second year the general principles of 
advanced physics, especially in their application to electri- 
city and optics. This extra course was the beginning of the 
advanced mathematics classes that we find in the secondary 
schools to-day. Inasmuch as after the first two years of 
Latin, these two courses ran parallel, it was hardly a break- 
ing in of science into the classical curriculum, but rather an 
option between two distinct fields of work, classics or science. 
The program of the Pnjtance of the year before had offered 
a similar choice in the second part of the course between the 
civil and the military sections. This latter was the real pre- 
cursor of the definite bifurcation of the course tliat took place 
under Minister Fortoul in 1852. 

1 Recueil de lois et reglemens conceniant Vinstruction pubUque, II., pp. 305- 
807. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 261 

The program of 1814 contains the following interesting 
provision with reference to science teaching, upon which un- 
fortunately we can throw no more light than -1814 
is found in the Statute itself : " The lessons 
in physics on Thursdays " (the secular holiday of the week, it 
will be remembered) " wiU. be common to the pupils of the 
third, second, and rhetoric forms. The professor will teach 
throughout the three years the principal objects in natural 
history, their most striking properties, and the use to which 
they are put in the arts. One year he will study animals 
and vegetables; one year minerals and chemistry; one year 
experimental physics." ^ At the same period the mathemat- 
ics work, although restricted to the second, rhetoric, and 
philosophy forms, included arithmetic, algebra, geometry, 
plane trigonometry, statics, and mathematical physics. All 
this for classical pupils indicates a great advance in their 
liberal culture over what prevailed even in the first ljc4e 
plan. 

Aside from devoting the second year of the philosophy 
form (added in 1820) entirely to mathematics and science 
in 1821, there was no real fundamental modification in this 
part of the program until 1840. At that time Miuister 
Cousin, believing that the science work was not only profit- 
less in itself, but was furthermore actually injuring the 
classical studies, boldly swept it all away from the sixth 
to the rhetoric form inclusive, and massed it in the phi- 
losophy form. This practically consisted of three sections: 
first the old philosophy; second elementary mathematics, 
a parallel course in which the time assignments of phi- 
losophy and mathematics are exactly transposed; and third 
an additional year called special mathematics, entirely 
devoted to mathematics and physics. The elimination of so 
much mathematics proved too radical a measure, so, later in 
the same year, part of it was restored and made optional. 
Thus the scientific subjects strove against the classics with 

1 Reciieil de lois et rhglemens concernant V instruction puhlique, V., p. 516. 



262 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

varying degrees of success, constantly gaining in prestige, if 
not in recognition in the program, until the bifurcation of 
Minister Fortoul in 1852 ^ practically put them on the same 
footing. It was a repetition of the first lyc^e program with 
a common course, this time for five years, and a bifurcated 
course for four years more, the letters section with compara- 
tively little science preparing for the baccalaureate in letters, 
and the science section with comparatively little Latin pre- 
paring for the baccalaureate in science. The science of the 
letters program was meagre enough, including only arith- 
metic, geometry, a little physics, chemistry, natural science, 
and cosmography. The real science course on the contrary 
was correspondingly rich, at least in subject matter, the pro- 
gram embracing arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonome- 
try, surveying, analytic geometry, plan drawing, physics, 
chemistry, natural history, cosmography, and mechanics. 
The preparation for the military and engineering schools 
was thus reaching a higher and higher level. In the mean- 
time, the creation of a " special " secondary course, begun in 
1848, and carried to successful completion under Minister 
Duruy in 1863 and 1866, originally including a small 
amount of Latin, but in its final form entirely " modern," 
was an effort to satisfy the growing demand for adequate, 
practical, mathematical and scientific instruction. Although 
passing through successive modifications and demanding 
more and more time and ability on the part of its followers, 
it never gained the prestige enjoyed by the classical culture. 
In the eyes of the general populace it was always looked upon 
as subordinate to the ancient learning. The new programs 
have finally placed the scientific culture and the literary cul- 
ture on equal footing, at least as far as official prescription 
can do so. 

In the elementary classes, the science work is restricted to 
arithmetic and nature study, or more properly speaking, nature 

1 Mglement cT^tudes dcs lyases, in Fortoul, Reforme de V enseignement, pt. 
I., vol. I., p. 99 et seq. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 263 

talks, for it seldom rises to the level of a real study of nature 
itself on the part of the pupils. The arithmetic covers a 
thorough formal drill in the four fundamental 
operations, both mental and written, some at- ^^gt^°tion 
tention paid to fractions, a very elementary 
treatment of proportion and simple interest, and the applica- 
tion of the metric system to the measurement of surfaces and 
the simpler solids the parallelopiped, cube, prism, and cylin- 
der. The nature work includes, in the beginning class, ac- 
quaintance with the simple facts of common knowledge, direc- 
tion, time, seasons, distinction of animal, mineral, and vegeta- 
ble kingdoms ; in the preparatory classes, the occupations and 
the products that touch their daily life, the farmer, the miller, 
the baker, the vineyardist, clothing, fuel, metals, means of 
locomotion ; in the eighth form, domestic and wild animals, 
birds, fish, insects, the forest, the field, the garden ; in the 
seventh form, materials employed in construction, whence 
obtained and how used, the winds, the different forms of 
water, volcanoes, fossils. As far as practicable, the teacher 
shows the various objects to the pupils, and occasionally the 
Thursday afternoon walks are utilized to complete the knowl- 
edge thus presented, but on the whole the net result amounts 
to a good deal of information about things rather than a thor- 
ough, first hand acquaintance with things. The French child 
finds in his parents an inexhaustible and ever ready source of 
information about the common things of life, and I am in- 
clined to believe that this nature work of the school is im- 
measurably reinforced by the parent in the home. In the 
two years I have spent in France, I have overheard more 
common knowledge instruction while passing along the 
streets than in all the rest of my life in America. 

The following detailed programs will give a clearer idea 
of the scope and character of the science instruction that is 
given in the secondary course proper : 



264 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

SIXTH FORM 
Division A 

Arithmetic, 2 hours. Review of operations with whole numbers. 
Mental work in problems, whole numbers. Common fractions. Re- 
duction of fractions to conunon denominator. Decimals. 

Natural Science, 1 hour. Zoology. About three lessons devoted 
to man and his place in the animal kingdom. Vertebrates : mammifer- 
ous animals; birds; reptiles; batrachians; fish. Articulates: insects; 
arachnids; crustaceans. Molluscs. Worms. Sea urchins and star fish. 
Polyps and medusae. Sponges. 

Division B 

Arithmetic, 3 hours. [Same program as for Division A. ] * In addi- 
tion, metric system in its practical application to area, volume, weight, 
density, time, velocity. Proportion solved by reduction. Simple 
interest. 

Natural Science, 2 hours. [Exactly the same program as for 
Division A, the extra time allowing a more detailed study.] 

FIFTH FORM 

Division A 

Arithmetic, 2 hours. Metric system. Reduction. Proportion solved 
by reduction. Simple interest. Use of letters to represent unknown 
quantities. Simple problems leading to equations of the first degree. 

Natural Science, 1 hour. Botany. Elementary study of organs 
of a flowering plant. Root. Stalk. Leaf. Flower. Fruit. Seed. Great 
divisions of vegetable kingdom. Phanerogamous and cryptogamous 
plants. 

Division B 

Mathematics, 4 hours. Arithmetic [Except for the work in pro- 
portion and the extraction of the square root, substantially the same as 
for the fourth form, Division A]. 

Geometry. [The same as that for the fourth form. Division A, with 
rather more emphasis upon the construction side.] 

Mechanical Drawing. Constructions met in the geometry. Simple 
problems based on the geometry. Graphic solutions. Geometric de- 
signs applied to the decoration of plane surfaces. Ink and color wash. 

Natural Science, 2 hours. Botany as given in Division A, and 
Geology as given in the fourth form. Division A. 

^ The brackets [ ] used here and in the following pages indicate the 
author's summary, rather than the abbreviated form of the official program 
that is ordinarily followed. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 265 

FOURTH FORM 
Division A 

Mathematics, 2 hours. Arithmetic. Product of a sum or a differ- 
ence by a number. Powers. Divisibility by 2, 5, 9, 3. Prime numbers. 
G. C. D., L. C. M. Proportion. Practical rule for extracting the square 
root of a whole number or a decimal to within less than a given degree 
of accuracy. 

Geometry. Use of the ruler, square, compass, and protractor. 
Straight lines. Angles. Triangles. Perpendicular and oblique lines. 
Parallels. Parallelograms. Circle. Measurement of angles. Ele- 
mentary constructions on the straight line and the circle. 

Natural Science, 1 hour. Geology. Study of soil modifications, 
as far as possible from samples found in the neighborhood. Rains; 
their effect on the soil. Sediment. Detritus. Permeable and imper- 
meable strata. Snows. Winds. Rocks. Volcanoes. Hot springs. 
Earthquakes. Life. Peat. Coral islands. 

Division B 

Mathematics, Book-keeping, and Mechanical Drawing, 5 hours. 
Arithmetic. Common and decimal fractions. Practical rule for ex- 
tracting the square root of a whole number or a decimal to within less 
than a given degree of accuracy. Arithmetical and geometrical pro- 
gression. Commercial methods of computing interest and discount. 
Discounts. Accounts. Commercial Paper. 

Geometry. Division of a line in a given ratio. Proportional lines. 
Similar triangles. Definition of sine, cosine, and tangent of an angle. 
Similar figures. The pantograph. Polygons. Fourth proportional. 
Geometric mean. Areas of polygons. Area of the circle. Construc- 
tion of cissoid, conchoid, etc. 

Book-keeping. Commerce. Merchants. Middlemen. Shipping. 
Bills and day book.' Receipts and cash book. Commercial paper. 
Clearing house. Discount and bills of exchange. 

Mechanical Drawing. The same program as in the previous class. 
Graphical construction of geometric loci; tracing the curves with pen. 

Physics and Chemistry, 2 hours. Physics. Weight: first notions 
of force, plumb line, center of gravity, double weighing ; specific weights 
and densities. Equilibrium of liquids and gases: pressure; hydraulic 
press; elevators; principle of Archimedes: atmospheric pressure; 
Mariotte's law. Heat: specific heat; fusion; vaporization; boiling 

1 The French system divides the actual book-keeping into three very distinct 
groups, entitled respectively comptahilM des marchandises, de la caisse, and 
du portefeuille, which concern themselves respectively with the mere paper trans- 
actions of orders, bills, etc., with the receipt and disbursement of actual cash, 
and with other media of payment, checks, drafts, notes, money orders, etc., 
and with the operations of the clearing house. 



266 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

point ; distillation ; application to transmission of heat, and protection 
against heat and cold. 

Chemistry. Various states of matter. Air. Oxygen. Nitrogen. 
Water. Hydrogen. Hydrochloric acid. Chlorine ; its compounds and 
uses. Sodium. Sal ammoniac. Metals, metalloids. Law of definite 
proportions. Formulae. Acids, bases, salts. Sulphur. Saltpetre. 
Phosphorus. Carbon. Carbon dioxide. Silicon. Boric acid. 



THIRD FORM 
Division A 

Mathematics, 3 hours. Arithmetic. Exercises upon the metric 
system, and upon quantities directly and inversely proportional. 

Algebra. Positive and negative numbers. Monomials and poly- 
nomials: addition, subtraction, multipUcation. Identity: x^ — a^ = 
{x — a) (x^ + ax + a^). Division of monomials. Numerical equa- 
tions of the first degree, one or two unknown quantities. Inequalities 
with one unknown of the first degree. 

Geometry. [Identical with the program in the fourth form. Division 
B, with the exception of the area of the circle, and the construction of 
the curves.] 

Division B 

Mathematics, 4 hours. Algebra. Positive and negative numbers. 
Monomials, polynomials: addition, subtraction, multiplication. Iden- 
tity: {x"' - a"') = (x - a) (x""-! + ox'" -2 + . . . +o'"-i). Division 
of monomials. Equations of the first and second degrees. Relations 
between coefficients and roots. Graphical representation of : ax + b; 

ax^ + bx + c: -, r;. Four-place logarithmic tables. Compound 

a'x + 

interest. 

Solid Geometry. Plane and line in space. Dihedral angles. Pro- 
jection of a polygon, a circle. Polyhedral angles. Surface and volume, 
prism, pyramid, cone, cylinder. Tangent pjane. Circumscribed sphere, 
cone, and cylinder. Projection shades and shadows. Surfaces of revo- 
lution. Surface and volume of sphere. Color work. Plan drawing, sur- 
veying, levelling. 

Physics and Chemistry, 2 hours. Physics. Acoustics. Optics: 
luminous and non-luminous bodies; reflection and refraction; images; 
vision; lens; composition of light; photography. Electricity: in- 
duction; electric machines; conductors; magnetic field; electrolysis; 
resistance; ohm; volt; watt; important applications of the electro- 
magnet ; induction ; atmospheric electricity ; lightning rod. 

Chemistry. Metals and alloys. Sodium. Limestone. Oxide and 
sulphide ores. Iron. Steel. Copper. Lead. Zinc. Aluminum. 
Porcelain. Glass. Silver. Gold. Money alloys. Organic Chemistry 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 267 

(half the course). Hydro-carbons. Illuminating gas. Methyl alcohol. 
Acetic acid. Ether salts. Glycerine. Glucose. Starch. Phenol. 

Natural Science, 1 hour. Zoology. (In this course, the teacher, 
in showing the principal characteristics of the various functions, will pay 
particular attention to the biological principles relating to man's food 
supply and health: hunting, fishing, domestication and training of 
animals. He will treat briefly the animals associated with man's daily 
work, as well as the plants and animals that provide his chief clothing 
supply.) 

Digestion. Respiration. Circulation. Animal heat. Nervous 
system. Locomotion. 

Book-keeping, 1 hour. Open accounts. Theory of accounts. Bal- 
ance sheet. Inventory. Investments in securities. Brief study of the 
great commercial, economic, and financial institutions. 

The same purpose appears here that has already been 
noted in the case of the history and geography, namely : 
to provide for those pupils that may leave 
school at the end of the first cycle. Inasmuch ^ Pro^gramr 
as these are more likely to be found among of the two 
the non-classical pupils, this tendency is more Mathematics, 
marked in Division B. The scope of the 
mathematics and science is a little wider; the subjects bear 
rather more strongly on the human side. On the other 
hand, inasmuch as these pupils are looking forward to 
becoming specialists in some field of science, their studies 
lay more stress on the theoretical aspect of the subject, a 
point typically exemplified by the following identities taken 
from the third form algebra : 

Division A : x^ — a^ — (x — a) (x^ -|- ax + a^) 

Division B:a;'«' — a'» = (x — a)(a;"i — l-t-axwi — 2+. . , -\- a'^—'^) 

In spite of the two extra hours for arithmetic, Division 
B covers very little more ground than Division A, but the 
additional time permits a more thorough treatment of the 
subjects in question besides providing opportunity for more 
careful drill on the processes most frequently used in book- 
keeping. The mechanical drawing, which for some peculiar 
reason is associated with the mathematics in the sixth, fifth, 
and fourth forms, in the third form shifts over to the 
drawing caption where one would naturally expect to find it. 



268 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Throughout these first years, it is very closely correlated 
with the mathematics, proving particularly useful in the 
solid geometry of the third form. The one hour of book- 
keeping in the fourth form with the possible additional 
hour in the third form finds no counterpart in Division A. 
Both divisions begin algebra in the third form, and the 
amount of ground covered is somewhat proportional to the 
time devoted to it. The advantage, however, is distinctly in 
favor of the " modern " division, for the Latin division does 
little more than make a start. Nominally it reaches 
numerical equations of the first degree in one or two 
unknown quantities, but in so doing many of the subjects 
treated in our beginning algebras are passed over hastily or 
else are omitted altogether. The work of the other division 
is much more thorough. The plane geometry as covered by 
the two divisions does not differ widely, but the solid 
geometry of the " modern " division is not studied by the 
Latin pupils until the next cycle, and then only in a most 
perfunctory fashion. It does little else than familiarize the 
pupils with a few of the elementary definitions of the 
subject, and teaches them the application of the formulas 
for the surface and volume of the ordinary figures. 

In natural science, both divisions cover the fields of 
zoology, botany, and geology, in that order. The course 
entitled zoology in Division B of the third form really treats 
of the physiology and hygiene of the human body, using 
its needs for nutrition and clothing as a point of departure 
for various digressions into the animal, vegetable, and 
mineral kingdoms. The Latin pupils have no physics or 
chemistry in the first cycle. 

If there is any one characteristic that stands out strongly 

in the French teaching of mathematics, that characteristic 

is thoroughness. Whether it is a little fellow 

Mathe°natics ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ entered the sixth form or a 

young man in the highest form who is on the 

eve of his examination for the Ecole Polytechnique, every 

one is held up to a rigid standard. The prevailing notion 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 269 

throughout it all is not to correct the error after it is made, 
but rather to prevent it from being made, a decidedly sound 
pedagogical principle that more of our own teachers would 
do well to keep constantly before them. In order to attain 
this purpose, the French teacher keeps close control over the 
processes of the class room. It is a rare sight to see two 
pupils at the board at once. As a matter of fact, a larger 
number would be quite out of the question, for a blackboard 
six feet by four feet is a large board. The problem is given 
out, and the pupil goes to the board. Every step taken is in 
full sight and under the scrutiny of the rest of the class as 
well as the teacher, so there is small chance of anybody 
going very far astray. It is inevitable that the apparent 
progress should be slow, but it is this very deliberateness 
that makes possible the thoroughness which, in its turn, 
avoids the necessity of much repetition and saves time in the 
end. In the meantime, the rest of the class at their seats 
are working out the problem in their note books. These 
problems, together with the presentation of the advance work 
as given by the teacher, which likewise finds a place in the 
note book, provide the major part of the material for outside 
study. The endless round of intermuiable examples that 
are the bane of pupil and parent alike in our own schools 
finds no place in the French scheme of mathematical 
instruction. The following distribution of time that I 
found in one sixth form is representative of the prevail- 
ing custom : of the four hours of class work in mathematics, 
two were spent in teaching and recitation proper, one in 
the correction of the home task (devoir), and one in mechan- 
ical drawing. The teacher's estimate of the time spent 
outside the class room was : one hour on drawing, an hour 
and a half for the task, and half an hour apiece for the 
preparation of each of the other two lessons. This arrange- 
ment of two long and two short periods of preparation 
in mathematics is dovetailed in with a corresponding 
arrangement in other subjects so that the outside prepa- 
ration for no one day makes any inordinate demand upon 



270 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the boy's strength. The home work on the so-called short 
days is merely a careful review of what was done in 
class at the preceding lesson, the driving home of the 
principles by practice being reserved for the weekly task. 
This total of three and a half hours per week for outside 
work is materially increased in the higher classes. 

The choice of salient processes is another factor, with 
the thoroughness, in enabling the French teacher to make 
haste slowly. In the first cycle particularly, the official 
instructions afford him every opportunity to follow the 
order that seems best and to use the method he deems most 
feasible for the class in question. The requirements of the 
baccalaureate examination at the end of the second cycle 
naturally impose some restrictions on this freedom during 
the latter part of the course, but in the first part he is quite 
free to devote himself unhampered to the intellectual de- 
velopment of his pupils. In algebra, for example, the pupil, 
having already been introduced to some of the elementary 
algebraic conceptions in connection with the arithmetic of 
the sixth, fifth, and fourth forms, skips rapidly over much 
of the preliminary formal work that cumbers most of our 
own texts (even factoring being very hastily treated), and 
pushes forward to the solution of the equation. He is 
taught to regard algebra as a tool, and not as an end in itself. 
In a third form that I saw on December 27th, after having 
spent only two hours per week on algebra since the previous 
October, one of the examples for the day with the entire 
solution was as follows : ^ 





X 3 

5 ~ 8 


= 1- 


2x + l 
7 




56a; 


-105 
136x 

X 


= 280 

= 345 

_345 

136 


- 80a; - 


40 



* In another lycee a few days later, I found the third form boys solving 
the following problem in three unknown (|uantities: "Find the number the 
si;m of whose digits is 14 ; the digit in the hundreds place is equal to the 
sum of the other two ; and 495 added to the number with the order of 
the digits reversed will give the original number." 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 271 

The pupil called to the hoard worked rapidly and confi- 
dently, talking as he wrote, and soon reached the solution 
without unnecessary waste of time or figures. From the 
awkward fraction in the answer, it was perfectly evident 
that the equation had not been specially contrived so as to 
come out even, but there was no expression of surprise at 
the result. Another boy was called to the board to prove 
the answer, an operation requiring considerably more work 
tlian the original solution. Then the teacher urged them to 
look upon every equation as a problem, and finally with a 
little skilful guidance from him, the class worked out the 
translation of this particular problem as follows : " Find a 
number the fifth part of wliich if reduced by three-eighths 
would equal one, diminished by the seventh part of one 
more than twice the number." Yet with all this practical 
tendency, there is a goodly amount of theoretical work, as 
appeared later in the same recitation in discussing the ques- 
tion of equivalent equations. 

Throughout the mathematics course one is impressed with 
the intimate relations existing among the various subjects. 
Arithmetic is not carried to a certain point, there to give 
way to algebra, in its turn, perhaps, to be supplemented by 
geometry, but from the fifth form in one division and from 
the fourth form in the other, at least two subjects are run 
conjointly. Some of the difficulties of algebra are thus 
already discounted by the elementary notions of the un- 
known quantity that have previously been encountered in 
the arithmetic. Geometry is especially emphasized in its 
numerical aspect, and in the Division B, the mechanical 
drawing is closely correlated with them all. The result is 
that the mathematics work appears as a single unified sub- 
ject with several facets rather than as so many discrete 
studies of the school curriculum. 

In the physical and the natural sciences (the former in- 
cluding both physics and chemistry), the work in the first 
cycle is unquestionably less satisfactory from the pupil's 
point of view, for he practically never gets into any closer 



272 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

than visual relations with the phenomena he is studying. 
The teachers try to make their subjects as practical as possi- 
ble, but without the assistance of student labo- 
Methods m jatorv work, with the immense fields to cover, 

Science. "^ ' „ . . , . 

and with the merest modicum of time m which 
to do it, it is not surprising that pure memory plays such 
a large part in this elementary science work. One can 
expect little more than a formal catalogue of names when 
the teacher has a single period of fifty or at most fifty-five 
minutes in which to complete the study of the human ner- 
vous system begun at the previous lesson, and to present the 
essential characteristics of the five senses and their func- 
tions. The most skilful teacher in the world might justly 
hesitate to undertake such an herculean task as this. The 
responsibility for any shortcomings should be laid upon 
the program and not upon the unfortunate teacher. The 
work in this particular sixth form that I saw was profusely 
illustrated with charts hanging on the wall and sketches 
put on the board during the course of the lectm-e, but with 
the exception of an experiment intended to show the image 
of a candle flame inverted by a lens (the actual effect of 
which was so hazy that the boys practically had to take the 
teacher's word for the fact) and two simple experiments to 
show the persistency of the retinal image, the teacher con- 
fined himself exclusively to pictures of the organs and of 
the phenomena in question, never once bringing the class 
face to face with the reality itself. Practically every school 
that I visited had a well equipped natural history collection. 
The science teachers ordinarily draw liberally on these for 
specimens to carry to their class rooms, but so far as I could 
find out the pupils never had an opportunity to see the col- 
lection in its own room. That is reserved to delight the 
eyes of the professor in charge of the work or to excite 
the admiration of the casual visitor. The French point of 
view is perfectly clear. It is based upon the idea that these 
specimens can be most effectively studied only when isolated 
and considered in their proper places in the general develop- 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 273 

ment of the subject, but it disregards completely the added 
interest and even inspiration that are likely to result from 
viewing the collection as a whole. Such a thing as pupils 
browsing freely about a museum of any sort is entirely 
foreign to the French conception of education. 

The physics and chemistry of the first cycle are decidedly 
elementary, serving merely to introduce the pupils to the 
study of these sciences, and constantly emphasizing their 
practical application to the uses of modern life. There is 
no text-book employed, the teacher proceeding entirely by 
the demonstration-lecture method. 

The following programs of the work of the second cycle 
will indicate the more advanced treatment of the scientific 
subjects : 

SECOND FORM 

Mathematics, 2 hours, first semester. (Program common to Sec- 
tions A and B.) 

Algebra. Exercises on equations of the first degree, and on the 
representation of the variations in the function ax + b. 

Solid Geometry. The plane and the straight fine in space. Dihe- 
dral angle. Definitions of polyhedral angles, pyramid, prism. Rules 
for surface and volume of the prism, pyramid, cylinder, cone, and 
sphere. 

Physics, 1 hour. (Program common to Sections A and B.) [The 
same general subjects as studied in the fourth form, Division B, a 
little less technically treated.] 

Geology, 12 lectures of one hour each. (Program common to Sec- 
tions A, B, C, and D.) Brief summary of present day phenomena : com- 
parison with early phenomena. Paleozoic period: ciiief animal forms; 
partition of oceans and continents. Mesozoic period : reptiles, first 
birds and mammiferous animals; flowering plants; rocks. Tertiary 
period : mammiferous animals ; discoveries of Cuvier ; formation of 
mountain ranges. Quaternary period : glacial formations ; man ; vol- 
canic phenomena of the tertiary and quaternary periods. 

Mathematics, 5 hours. (Program common to Sections C and D.) 

Algebra. [Practically the same topics as in the third form. Division 
B, with the addition of problems, inequalities of the first and second 
degrees, the derivative, arithmetical and geometrical progression. The- 
oretical discussions, especially in studying the progressions and expo- 
nents, begin to receive more and more attention.] 

Plane Geometry. Line and surf ace : angles; triangles, kind, equal- 
ity; locus; parallels; sum of the angles of a triangle ; of a convex poly- 

18 



274 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

gon; parallelograms; symmetry; translation of a rigid plane figure. 
Circle : intersection of straight line and circle ; tangent ; arcs and chords ; 
measure of angles; rotation about a point; translation. Proportional 
lengths: divide a line in a given ratio; similar triangles; harmonic 
pencil; bisectors of a triangle; locus; centers of similarity; similar 
polygons; sine, cosine, tangent, and cotangent of angles between zero 
and two right angles; fourth proportional; mean proportional; regu- 
lar polygons; relation of circumference to diameter; calculation of tt 
(using the perimeters of regular polygons). Area of polygons; of the 
circle ; ratio of the areas of similar polygons ; of two circles. Elementary 
principles of surveying. 

Physics and Chemistry, 3 hours. (Program common to Sections C 
and D.) 

Physics. [The same general topics as in the fourth form. Division B, 
the extra time together with the assistance rendered by the earlier 
study making it possible to treat each topic more fully.] 

Chemistry. [The same observation applies here as in the physics 
above.] 

Science Laboratory, 2 hours. (Program common to Sections C 
and D.) 

FIRST FORM 

Mathematics, 2 hours, second semester. (Program common to 
Sections A and B.) 

Algebra. Exercises on numerical equations of the first degree in 
one or more unknown quantities, and of the second degree in one un- 
known, graphic representation of the variations of x- and -. 

X 

Geometry. Measure of angles. Similar plane figures. Definition of 
sine, cosine, and tangent of an angle between zero and two right angles. 
Metrical relations in the triangle and the circle. Areas of plane figures. 
Rules for finding surfaces and volumes of prisms, pyramids, cylinders, 
cones, and spheres. 

Physics, 1 hour. (Program common to Sections A and B.) [The 
same general subjects as studied in the third form. Division B, a little 
less technically treated.] 

Mathematics, 5 hours. (Program common to Sections C and D.) 

Geometry. Plane, and straight line; determination of a plane; 
parallelism and perpendicularity of lines and planes; dihedral angle; 
obliques to a plane ; projection of a plane ; area ; translation ; rotation ; 
symmetry. Trihedral angles; similarity; polyhedrons; prisms; pyra- 
mid; symmetry of cubes; volume of parallelepiped, of prism, of pyra- 
mid, of frustum of a pyramid, of truncated, triangular prism. Circular 
cylinder and cones, sphere ; area and volume of the foregoing. Tangent 
plane. 

Descriptive Geometry. The point. Distance between two points. 
Intersecting and parallel lines. The plane. Rabattement on a hori- 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 275 

zontal plane. Angle between two lines. Distance from a point to a line. 
Intersection of lines and planes. Application to shades and shadows. 
Distance from a point to a plane. Angle between a line and a plane, 
between two planes. 

Representation of a point, a line, and a plane, by means of two planes 
of projection. Intersection of lines and planes. Parallel and perpen- 
dicular lines and planes. Rabattement. Practical applications. 

Trigonometry. Trigonometric fimctions (sine, cosine, tangent, co- 
tangent). j> -, etc. Theory of projections. Formula for sin 2a, cos 2a, 

tan 2a. Rational expression of all trigonometric functions of the angle 

a . ad 

a in terms of tan -. Given cos o = 6 ; to find value of sin - and cos ~. 

Similarly for tan -• Sums or differences of the trigonometric 

functions of two angles in terms of products. Inverse problem. Express 
a cos (u t + a) + b cos (wt + jS), where t is the only variable. Use of 
four or five place logarithmic tables. Solution of right triangles. Solu- 
tion or discussion of simple trigonometric equations. Relations between 
the sides and angles of a triangle. Solution of triangles. 

Algebra. Equation and trinomial of the second degree. Derivatives 
of simple functions. Variation and graphical representation. Recti-' 
linear movement, using derivatives. Velocity and acceleration. Uni- 
formly accelerated motion. (Teachers should apply algebraic theory 
to numerous examples from algebra, trigonometry, and geometry.) 

Physics and Chemistry, 3 hours. (Program common to Sections 
C and D.) 

Physics. [The same general topics as in the third form. Division B, 
the extra time together with the assistance rendered by the earlier study 
making it possible to treat each topic more fully.] 

Chemistry. [The same observation applies here as in the physics 
above.] 

Laboratory work, 2 hours. (Program common to Sections C 
and D.) 

PHILOSOPHY FORM 

Mathematics, 2 hours. Cosmography, 1 hour for one semester. 
(Program common to Sections A and B.) 

Mathematics. Review of positive and negative numbers. Devel- 
opment: (a + by, (a + by. Identity: a" + i - 6" + ^ = (a - 6) (a" 
+ a" 6 + ... +6"). Geometrical algebra of the Greeks: a number 
represented by a line; a product by the surface of a rectangle; figures 

equivalent to the identities: (a ± by = a^ ± 2ab + 6^, / — - — f — 

I — - — \ = ah. Construction: square on the hypothenuse ; rectangle 
having a given side and on given line equivalent to given rectangle; 



276 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

rectangle equivalent to given square, knowing the sum and difference of 
its sides, followed by expressions of these sides. Solution of algebraic 
equation of the second degree, with application to the preceding problem ; 
comparison of the results. Advantages of the modern notation, par- 
ticularly of positive and negative numbers. 

Determination of a point in a plane, given two numbers; inverse 
representation. Co-ordinates; latitude and longitude. Graphic repre- 
sentation of variation of phenomena with a single variable; curves of 
temperature, pressure; application to statistics. Functions; graphic 
representation of: 

y = ax; y = ax + b; y = x^; y = x^; 2/ = -. 

z 

Construction of straight line defined by a numerical equation of the 
first degree in x and y; slope of the line. Co-ordinate paper. Solu- 
tion of two numerical equations of the first degree in two unknowns by 
intersection of two straight lines; of numerical equations of the form; 

X- + px + q = 0, x^ + px + q = 

by the intersection of curves whose equations are : 

y = x'', y = x\ 

with the straight line whose equation is y + px + q = 0. Plots of em- 
pirical railway tables. Curves drawn by self-registering machines. 
Construction of simple curves defined geometrically; their equations. 
Tangent and derivative. Tangent obtained geometrically as limit of 
a secant (circle, parabola). Slope of tangent; application to simple 
cases : 

y = x^, y = x^, y = -. 

X 

Derivative in its relati.on to the variation of a function. 

Approximate area of curve by plotting and counting squares; con- 
trol of error. Area of triangle as common limit of sums of the areas of 
two sets of rectangles. Function with a given derivative. Area of 
parabola. Area of triangle or parabola by obtaining the function 
whose derivative is ax or ax'-. 

Application of infinitesimal method to evaluating volumes or surfaces 
of bodies in elementary geometry. 

Cosmography, 1 hour for a semester. Copernican system. The 
Bun: size, distance, constitution, rotation, spots. Planets. Earth: 
form, dimensions, rotation, poles, equator, meridians, parallels, longi- 
tude, latitude. Moon: movement, constitution. Comets; shooting 
stars; aerolites. Stars, nebulise, milky way. 

Physics and Chemistry, 3 hours. (Program common to Sections 
A and B.) 

Physics. [The topics of Division A of the second and first forms are 
here treated again, this time with more attention to their application: 
e. g., the principle of the pendulum as applied to the clock; conservation 
and dissipation of energy; Gramme machine; telephone; microphone; 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 277 

cathode and X-rays. Periodic movements with longitudinal and trans- 
verse vibrations, waves, and interference introduce a new topic. Sound 
and optics are more fully treated. Under the former are included : the 
phonograph ; velocity of sound ; music ; physiological qualities and the 
physical interpretation of musical sounds ; vibrating chords (laws) ; 
harmonics; and resonators. Under the latter are treated: analogies 
between light and sound; hypothesis of light vibrations; radiation 
from ultra-red to ultra-violet rays ; phosphorescence and fluorescence.] 

Chemistry. [Except for the oxide and sulphide ores, some of the less 
important alloys, aluminum, porcelain, and glass, this program is 
identical with that of Division B in the fourth and third forms above.] 

Natural Science, 2 hours. (Program common to Philosophy A 
and B, and to Mathematics A and B.') 

Animal and Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology. Life phenom- 
ena common to the two kingdoms. Elements of living things, multipli- 
cation, nutrition. 

Animal Anatomy and Physiology. Tissues. Type organizations of 
animal kingdom. Man; nutrition; digestion; circulation; absorption; 
respiration; animal heat; elimination of waste. Nervous system. 
Sense organs. Locomotion. Larynx and voice. 

Paleontology, at least five lessons of one hour. General idea of 
configuration of land and sea during the paleozoic, mesozoic, and ter- 
tiary periods. Animals of paleozoic, of mesozoic, of tertiary, and of 
quaternary periods. Evolution of mammiferous animals. History of 
the horse. Man. 

Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology. Typical forms of the vege- 
table kingdom. Physiology of phanerogams. Nutrition: root, stalk, 
leaf. Nitrification. Respiration. Parasitic plants. Reproduction: 
flower; fertilization and development; fruit and seeds. Germination. 
Reproduction of cryptogams and phanerogams. Vegetable evolution. 

Hygiene, 12 lectures of one hour. (Program common to Philoso- 
phy A and B, and to Mathematics A and B.) 

Water: spring, river, well, drinkable; contamination; purification. 
Air: amount necessary for health; renewal; ventilation; contamina- 
tion and change. Nourishment : meat, wholesome, decayed ; parasites 
introduced into human body. Alcoholic beverages : ^ fermented, dis- 
tilled, cordials; effects. Drunkenness and alcoholism. Exercise: under 
and over exercise. Principal contagious and infectious diseases : propa- 
gation. Transmission through excrement or expectoration : typhoid, 
cholera, tuberculosis. Receptivity and immunity; resistance; vario- 
loid and vaccine; revaccination ; inoculation against anthrax, hydro- 
phobia, diphtheria. The dwelling: salubrity of the house; aeration; 
isolation of the soil ; the sanitary and unsanitary house. Domestic ani- 
mals: transmitters of disease; their sanitation. 

1 For laboratory work, required of all sections, see under Science Labora- 
tory for the mathematics form, p. 280. 

2 At least one lesson shall be devoted to the consideration of alcoholic drinks. 



278 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

MATHEMATICS FORM 

Mathematics, 8 hours. (Program common to Sections A and B.) 
Arithmetic. [General view of arithmetic, including measure of mag- 
nitude (demonstrate: the ratio of two magnitudes of the same kind is 
equal to the quotient of their numerical measures).] Determination of 
the upper limit of the error of a sum, difference, product, or a quotient, 
when given the upper limit of the errors of the constituent quantities. 
Algebra. [General review of algebra previously covered without 
developing the theory of imaginaries.] Variations and graphical repre- 
sentation of the functions : 

ax + b „ , ^ , o 

y = ax + o; y = — —; y = ax^ + ox + c; y = ax* + ox^ + c. 

Derivative of a sum, product, quotient, of the square root of a func- 
tion, of sin X, cos x, tan x, cot x. Application of the study of variation to 
finding the maxima and minima of certain simple functions, especially 
those of the form: 

ax^ + bx + c 

, , , ,, , — 7; x^ + px + q, 

a x^ + X + c 

with numerical coefficients. 

Derivation of the area of a curve regarded as a function of the ab- 
scissa. (The teacher is to avoid undue rigor and freely appeal to geo- 
metric intuition in discussing derivatives.) 

Trigonometry. Trigonometric functions. Addition and subtrac- 
tion of arcs. Multiplication and division by 2. Solution of triangles. 
Applications of trigonometry. (No reference to the construction of 
trigonometric tables.) 

Geometry. Fundamental conclusions of plane and solid geometry. 
Power of a point with respect to the circle and the sphere. Radical axes 
and planes. Polar of a point with respect to the circle. Polar plane of 
a point with respect to the sphere. Inversion. Applications. Peau- 
cellier's cell. Stereographic projection. 

Vectors. Projection of a vector. Geometric addition. Linear mo- 
ment with regard to a point. Moment with regard to an axis. Appli- 
cation to couples. 

Perspective. Of a point, straight line, curve. Vanishing point of a 
line. Perspective of two parallel lines. Vanishing line of a plane. Con- 
ception of the line at infinity. 

Conic Sections. Ellipse: construction; tangent, problems; equa- 
tion of ellipse with reference to its axes; considered as projection of a 
circle. Intersection of ellipse and straight line. Hyperbola: con- 
struction ; tangent, problems ; asymptotes ; equation of hyperbola with 
reference to its axes. Parabola: construction; tangent, problems; 
equation of parabola with reference to its axis and the tangent at the 
vertex. Common definition of these curves by means of focus and 
directrix. Plane sections of cone or cylinder of revolution. 

Descriptive Geometry. Angles between planes and straight lines. 
Distances between points, lines, and planes. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 279 

Projection of a circle. Sphere; plane section, intersection with a 
straight line. Circular cone and cylinder; tangent plane passing 
through a point, or parallel to a line; shadows; plane sections. Cir- 
cumscribed cones and cylinders ; shadows. 

Representation of a surface by contour lines. Co-ordinate of a point 
on surface whose horizontal projection is given. Slope of a line drawn 
on a surface. Lines of equal slope; of greatest slope. Topographic 
maps. 

Planimetry and levelling. Conventional markings and colorings. 
Map reading; use in the field. 

Kinematics. Units of length and time. Motion. Trajectory of 
point. Rectilinear motion; uniform motion; velocity of a vector. 
Variable motion ; mean velocity ; velocity at an instant. Acceleration; 
acceleration at an instant, a vector; mean acceleration. Uniformly ac- 
celerated motion. Curvilinear motion. Resolved velocities. Hodo- 
graph. 

Uniform circular motion; harmonic motion. Composition of veloci- 
ties. Applications. Translation and rotation about an axis of a rigid 
body. Helicoidal motion. Simple machines. 

Dynamics and Statics. Of a particle. Inertia; force; mass; re- 
sultant. Equilibrium of a particle, free, on a curve, on a surface, on a 
friction plane. Vertical and parabolic movement of a particle. Slid- 
ing friction. Work; unit of work; work of a constant, and a variable 
force ; virtual work ; total work ; indicator diagrams ; energy. 

Of a rigid body. Parallel forces; center of gravity; examples. 
Couples. Resultant of a system of forces. Conditions of equilibrium 
of a rigid body. Equilibrium of a rigid body turning about a fixed axis, 
about a point. 

Of simple machines. Relation between power and resistance. Theo- 
rem of vis viva. Friction. Efficiency. Fly wheels, and brakes. 

Cosmography. Celestial sphere : zenith; theodolite; laws of diur- 
nal movement; meridian; pole; sidereal day; right ascension and 
declination. Earth: geographical co-ordinates; dimensions and relief 
of the earth ; world maps ; charts. Sun : apparent movement along the 
ecliptic; inequality of days and nights in various latitudes; seasons; 
tropical and sidereal year; sidereal time; mean time; civil time. 
Julian and Gregorian calendars. Moon: apparent movement ; phases; 
rotation; variation in apparent diameter. Lunar and solar eclipses. 
Planets: Copernican system; Kepler's and Newton's laws. Distance, 
dimension, physical constitution of the sun, planets, and their satel- 
lites. Comets; meteors; meteorites. Stars; constellations. Nebulae. 
Milky Way. 

Physics and Chemistry, 5 hours. (Program common to Sections 
A and B.) 

Physics. [The program is very similar to that in the philosophy 
form, save that the topics are taken up a little more technically, and 
with greater emphasis upon their applications in the fields of mechanics 
and electricity.] 



280 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Chemistet. General principles of chemical combinations. Qualita- 
tive analysis. Review of the characteristics of the elements and com- 
pounds so as to recognize their existence in chemical combinations. 
Quantitative and volumetric analysis. Quantitative chemistry. Sym- 
bols; formulae. Molecules: determination of molecular weights. 
Atoms : determination of atomic weights. Valence. Acids, bases, and 
salts. Alkaline metals and alkaline earths ; ordinary compounds. Iron : 
iron sulphate. Zinc: zinc sulphate. Lead: red lead, white lead. 
Copper: sulphate of copper. Mercury: chlorate of mercury. Classi- 
fication of the metalloids. Distinctive characteristics of : oxides, sul- 
phides, the principal kinds of salts (chlorides, carbonates, sulphates, 
nitrates). Chemical equilibrium (experimental). Dissociation. Ber- 
thollet's laws. Heat of combination. Thermo-chemistry. 

Organic Chemistry. Principles of organic analysis. Synthesis. 
Graphic formulae. Functions in organic chemistry. Hydro-carbons. 
Halogens. Ethyl alcohol. Ether. Aldehyde. Acetic acid; ether salts; 
urates. Cyanogen. Glycerine, oxalic acid, lactic acid. Benzines. 
Phenol ; aniline. Nitrogenous substances. Albumen. 

Natural Science, 2 hours. Same program as in the Philosophy 
form. 

Science Laboratory, 2 hours. Physics, Chemistry, Natural Science. 
(Program common to Mathematics A and B.) 

In the mathematics form, a certain number of laboratory exercises will 
review the most important topics of the second and first forms. Five 
or six of these will be set apart for natural science. These will be com- 
mon to the four sections of the philosophy and mathematics forms. 

Hygiene, 12 lectures of one hour. Same program as in the philoso- 
phy form. 

Until 1904, the programs in the graduate classes known 

as the special mathematics form were more or less confused. 

,, , . The entrance examinations for the jScole Poly- 

jVTfit'nf'TTiR't'io^ 

and Science technique required certain things that were not 
in the Higher demanded by the ^cole Centrale and vice versa. 
While this diversity caused no particular 
inconvenience for the Paris schools where the classes were 
large enough to have special sections for each of the various 
government engineering schools, it was decidedly awkward 
for the provincial lyc^es where the classes were considerably 
smaller. In accordance with the report of a special com- 
mission appointed for that purpose, the program of these 
graduate classes was revised so as to obviate most of these 
difficulties. Now the requirements for these schools present 
no very great variation, so that a pupil who has failed in the 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 281 

competition for one can readily present himself for another 
without any material loss of time. The reforms tend in gen- 
eral toward minimizing the emphasis upon pure theory, the 
teachers being specifically urged not to give any theory 
without making numerous applications, choosing them pref- 
erably from those which will be encountered later in the 
fields of physics and mechanics. Analytic geometry has 
consequently been considerably simplified, and mathemati- 
cal analysis correspondingly developed. The program in- 
cludes a more exhaustive study of the subjects of the ordi- 
nary mathematics form : advanced algebra, trigonometry, 
plane and solid analytical geometry, mechanics, descriptive 
geometry, physics, and chemistry. 

The general method of procedure in mathematics instruc- 
tion in the upper classes does not differ materially from that 
already described for the first cycle. A mere ^^ , ■, 
casual study of the detailed program will scope of the 
show that it still follows the concentric circle Mtithematics 
plan, the work of eacli succeeding class gradu- 
ally broadening the field already covered. In Sections 
and D of the second and first forms, we find for the first time 
courses in plane geometry, solid geometry, and trigonometry 
that resemble very closely the corresponding courses in our 
American high schools, whereas in the preceding and in 
succeeding forms, these same subjects are treated respectively 
in a more elementary and a more advanced fashion. The 
greater freedom accorded the teachers under the present 
conditions results in more or less diversity in topical se- 
quence, a diversity materially enhanced by the prevailing 
concentric circle plan of instruction. In the main the 
teachers adhere reasonably closely to the order of topics of 
the official program, yet from time to time one finds orig- 
inal spirits venturesome enough to depart from this very rad- 
ically. If their plans succeed and their pupils stand the 
test, they receive official support and naturally make more 
rapid progress toward a Paris appointment. On the other 
hand, the results are correspondingly disastrous in case of 



282 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

failure. I found one teacher in the mathematics form dis- 
tributing his work in the following intensive fashion, con- 
centrating all the eight hours per week on a single subject 
from the beginning of the year practically until the beginning 
of the general review at Pentecost : October, geometry ; No- 
vember and December, algebra ; January, kinematics of the 
point ; first half of February, conic sections ; last half of 
February and first half of March, kinematics of a rigid body, 
machines ; from the middle of March until the Easter vaca- 
tion, descriptive geometry ; May, cosmography, and finally 
arithmetic. Trigonometry monopolized the attention at no 
particular period, but was brought in from time to time as 
the occasion required. This by no means indicates that it 
was neglected. On the contrary it seems fairly to permeate 
the whole program, and it is utilized in some form or other 
in the gi'eat majority of the problems in the mathematics 
examinations. The above plan of work also shows roughly 
the relative amount of time devoted to each of the various 
branches, algebra receiving approximately two months, 
mechanics a month and a half, arithmetic, geometry, and 
descriptive geometry, a month each, and conic sections and 
cosmography a half a month each, the rest of the year being 
given over to review. This particular teacher spent a period 
or two a week on the general re\'iew from Easter to Pente- 
cost. From this latter date, which in 1908 came at the 
end of the first week in June, the time was exclusively 
devoted to reviewing the work of the year. To some this 
may seem a disproportionate amount of time for review, 
amounting as it does to nearly a fifth of the actual school 
year, but it is typical of French educational practice gener- 
ally, showing unmistakably the importance attached to this 
phase of instruction, and it goes a long way toward guaran- 
teeing not only that the pupils know thoroughly the work 
they have been over, but furthermore that they shall have that 
knowledge where it is readily available. By the end of the reg- 
ular course for the baccalaureate, the French science student 
has advanced about as far as has his American cousin at the 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 283 

completion of the freshman year in our best technical schools. 
The instruction in the following special mathematics form 
which prepares for the government scientific schools carries 
one considerably farther than that, and is quite on a par 
with that given in the science faculties of the universities. 
Throughout it all one is constantly impressed with the pre- 
vailing unity that has been already noted more than once. 
The teacher is not teaching algebra, or geometry, or trigo- 
nometry, but he is teaching mathematics, these various 
branches being mere subdivisions of the general science, and 
invariably subordinate to it. 

The science course in Sections C and D is considerably 
vitalized by the introduction of laboratory work, although 
the other two sections are still handicapped ]\j;gtho^s in 
by the more formal nature of the instruction in Science 
the lower forms, thereby suggesting that some ^^^^''^ction. 
of the more practical of Eousseau's educational ideas are still 
imperfectly appreciated by his own countrymen. The fail- 
ure to apply at least a part of this science instruction to the 
practical affairs of life was very forcibly brought to my at- 
tention. The program of the lectures in hygiene requires 
the teacher to discuss the subject of fresh air, the necessity 
of ventilation, and the dangers from contamination, yet in the 
great majority of the class rooms I visited the air was atro- 
ciously bad, and in but few cases did the teacher make any 
effort to improve it. One is justified in questioning how ef- 
fective the lecture method ever is, as far as practical results 
are concerned. 

The science lectures in general are supplemented by prac- 
tical demonstrations of the principles involved, though in all 
the class work that I saw in optics, these were restricted to 
diagrammatic sketches put on the board by the teacher. In 
Sections C and D this particular lack is partially compen- 
sated for by the laboratory experiments which involve a few 
of the more fundamental principles of light. The effects of 
the lecture room demonstrations of the teacher were partially 
vitiated by the fact that the pupils were quite content to take 



284 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

his statement of the progress of the experiment and seemed 
to evince little inclination to verify this from their own ob- 
servation. As far as my own experience goes, science in the 
French secondary schools is an informational rather than an 
observational study. In the words of the official instruc- 
tions : " The aim is not to make professional physicists of our 
pupils, but to acquaint them with the great laws of nature 
and to put them in position to understand what is going on 
in the world about them," ^ The former is obviously the 
dominant aim, especially in the so-called letters sections. 
The laboratory work in physics and chemistry in Sections C 
and D presents a slightly different phase of the question, 
although even here there is no intention of beginning 
the practical training of independent investigators. Since it 
serves primarily to impress and reinforce the principles al- 
ready encountered in the lecture room, it is rare for the 
pupils to have a problem even in chemistry, that has not 
been already worked out and demonstrated in the lecture 
room. This probably accoimts for the general satisfaction 
among science teachers themselves with the time allotment 
for experimental work. Most of them would like more time 
for lecture work, but nobody that I met found the laboratory 
exercises relatively undervalued. 

The equipment for science teaching is on the whole remark- 
ably complete. Although the amount of apparatus naturally 
varies from school to school, I failed to find a 

Equipment single school that did not seem adequately sup- 
plied, and in several instances the laboratories 
represented an expenditure of thousands of dollars. The 
magnificent science equipment at the College Eollin in Paris, 
a secondary school supported at municipal expense, is cer- 
tainly superior to that at many an American college. The 
physics and chemistry departments at that school receive 
3,500 francs for annual expenses other than salaries. The 
major part of this being devoted to physics, the professor in 

i Conscils ginirmix, in Plan d'ititdcs et jirogranwus d'enseignement dans Us 
lyc6cs et colleges de gan^oiis, 1907-8, p. 119. 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 285 

charge of the work has been able to provide a small but very 
complete equipment for student laboratory work. In the 
particular second form that I had the good fortune to visit, 
there were twenty boys working in pairs. In order to econo- 
mize expenses for sets of apparatus, the teacher had arranged 
his work so that five different experiments, naturally bearing 
upon as many phases of the same general subject, should go 
on simultaneously. At the end of five weeks, there being 
only one laboratory period per week, each pupil will have 
performed all the five experiments, and then a new series is 
given out. This school was particularly fortunate in having 
besides a number of small rooms for experiments in light and 
other subjects where isolation is desirable. In nearly every 
other school that I saw, the pupils have to perform their ex- 
periments in physics in the chemical laboratory. The fact 
that laboratory work in physics was introduced for the first 
time in the program of 1902, accounts for this apparent 
partiality for chemistry. Many of the science teachers have 
been able to find among the numerous domestics attached to 
their schools some with a decidedly mechanical turn of mind, 
and they have drawn upon this source of supply for assistance 
in the construction and repair of physics apparatus. In some 
schools one such domestic devotes all his time to this work. 
Thus ingenious and ambitious teachers that were not fortu- 
nate enough to be placed at a College Eollin have been en- 
abled to supply their laboratories with many sets of simple 
and taexpensive apparatus, accurate enough for all practical 
purposes. 

The student chemical laboratories with their less expensive 
apparatus are better equipped than those for teaching ex- 
perimental physics. Many of the chemical Laboratory 
laboratories are really excellent, considerably Work in 
superior, in fact, to the character of the work Ohemistry. 
done in them. No chemicals are ever kept at the pupils' 
benches. These are all brought in by a domestic from 
the teacher's laboratory, the apparatus and supplies for 
each pair of pupils being on a separate tray. These various 



286 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

outfits have all been previously assembled by the laboratory 
assistant for each successive class. When the pupils reach 
the laboratory, everything that they use for the experiment 
of the day is on the desk before them, and when the hour is 
over they have simply to leave the material where they 
found it. They thus have no more responsibility for getting 
their supplies together nor of clearing up their apparatus be- 
fore they leave than if they were sitting down to dinner. 
At the beginning of each laboratory period the teacher gives 
careful directions for the experiment of the day. The pupil 
thus knows exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, 
and generally what results he should obtain. When this is 
done and the results written in his note book (with fair luck 
the good pupils can complete their work in half or three 
quarters of the period), he can devote the remainder of the 
time to annoying his neighbor. If for any reason the experi- 
ment is not finished by the end of the hour, the whole time 
is practically lost, for there is no provision for completing or 
making up the work. Indeed why should there be, since the 
experiment is merely confirmatory of what he already knows ? 
The lack of aprons or other special laboratory dress, the ab- 
sence of responsibility put upon the pupils, the mere confirm- 
atory character of the work, all tend to engender the idea 
that this is a kind of playing at experimentation, rather than 
serious laboratory work. Even among some boys that I saw 
who were in the middle of their third year in the laboratory 
(to be sure they had spent only one hour per week on 
chemistry), the general lack of " at homeness " in handling 
apparatus was strikingly apparent. 

Yet when all these criticisms have been passed on the 
formal nature of science teaching, the emphasis upon 
memory, the lack of student responsibility, the 
mediocrity of the laboratory work, this very 
system has produced results ; whether despite or on account 
of the system, scientists have nevertheless been produced. 
Witness the long line of illustrious names from Descartes 
down to Pasteiu-, a group of men that puts France second to 



MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE 287 

no other nation, men that have not only vitally contributed 
to the world's store of knowledge of fundamental scientific 
principles, but that have applied these principles to the 
expansion of the field of human endeavor, to the alleviation 
of human suffering, and to the elevation of the human race. 



CHAPTEK XIII 

OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 

Philosophy, Morale, Law, Drawing, and Grymnastics 

In order to complete the topics under the various subjects of 
instruction in the secondary school curriculum, it will be 
necessary to bring together in this chapter a rather fragmen- 
tary discussion of several subjects that do not readily fall 
under any of the great heads already treated. Such are 
philosophy, elementary ethics, common law, gymnastics, and 
drawing, all except the last two appearing for a very limited 
time in the course of study. 

Philosophy 

Philosophy was originally essentially a subject of higher 

learning. The failure to differentiate clearly between higher 

r,, -1 1 and secondary education that characterized 

Plulosophy •' 

before the French education for centuries, a haziness that 
Revolution, g^^]^ lingers in the frequent inclusion of the 
lyc^es and colleges in the university system and that renders 
the mutation from the teaching staff of the lycde to that of 
the university proper a matter of no very great difficulty, 
facilitated the settling down of philosophy into the curric- 
ulum of the secondary schools, especially since these very 
schools assumed the fimctiou of providing a complete liberal 
education. Philosophy as the crowning study of medieval 
scholarship thus found a sympathetic welcome in the lower 
institutions of learning. The philosophy of the Jesuit col- 
leges, reaching as it did only a comparatively small portion 
of their students, for the great majority of them left at the 
end of the rhetoric form, was still further circumscribed by 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 289 

the extremely narrow scope of its field. Not only was it re- 
stricted to Aristotle, but it did not include all of that 
author, and even then placed interpretation of the words on 
a par with that of the subject matter. ^ Thus the logic of the 
first year of the philosophy course and the metaphysics of 
the third become considerably attenuated in the light of the 
accompanying directions. Although Descartes published his 
Discours sur la methode in 1636, it was not until after the 
opening of the eighteenth century that Cartesianism really 
made any appreciable headway even in the university col- 
leges. The temper of the time is reflected in the projected 
reform of the Statutes of the Faculty of Arts in 1720, wherein 
Descartes, who a quarter of a century before had been 
proscribed in the schools, appears side by side with Aristotle 
among the classic texts. ^ Although Eollin reproached him- 
self for having studied philosophy only superficially, he ac- 
corded it but faint praise in recognizing the advantages 
accruing from its study and in almost the same breath 
contrasting the " arid, rough, and thorny region " of philosophy 
with the " gladsome, gay, and flowery land of the belles- 
lettres, " ^ a point of view not at all surprising when one re- 
calls that Eollin himself was a rhetorician rather than 
a philosopher. Philosophy with him, as heretofore, included 
not only the whole round of scientific knowledge of the 
learned, but even what he was pleased to call " physics for 
children," * an approach to our nature study of to-day. In 
the last years of the old regime, despite Eousseau's attempt 
to differentiate the physical sciences from their foster parent, 
philosophy still included the time-honored four-fold division 
of logic, metaphysics, ethics, and physics. The course 
which extended over two years and represented the real 



1 Eatio atquc institutio studiorum, ed. 1603, p. 87. 

2 Reformatio statutorum celeherrimae artium facultatis universitatis shidii 
Parisiensis, caput III., xxii,, in Jourdain, Histoire de V UniversiU de Paris, 
PUces justiUcatives, p. 173. 

8 RoLLiN, Trait4 des Mttdes, III., pp. 160, 173. 
4 Ibid., p. 204. 

19 



290 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

work of the Faculty of Arts of the University ^ continued to 
be given in Latin. 

With Napoleon's organization of the University, philos- 
ophy became definitely attached to secondary instruction, 
„, ., , although in those classes it was treated in an 

rhilosophy a ° p , . i • i i 

Subject of elementary fashion which by no means tended 
Secondary In- j^q diminish its importance as a subiect of 

struction. . . ^ ■' 

higher instruction, and the trend toward a 
cleavage between philosophy and science that had appeared 
in nearly every proposed program since the beginning of 
the Eevolutionary period was recognized as an accomplished 
fact. Save for a few months during the year 1821, and 
again for a brief period from 1847 when special conditions 
were made applicable to the Paris schools alone, the philos- 
ophy course has been restricted to a single year, since 1830 
the instruction being given exclusively in the mother tongue. 
Philosophy has been relatively little affected by the new 
program of 1902. It still occupies eight hours a week dur- 
ing the first semester and nine hours during the second, thus 
consuming about one third of the student's time in the phil- 
osophy form. In the mathematics form, it is relatively 
almost insignificant, for it is allotted only three hours per 
week throughout the year, apportioned evenly between moral 
philosophy and philosophy as applied to science. The fol- 
lowing paragraphs will show somethiag of the scope of this 
philosophy program : 

PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL AUTHORS 

8 hours, first semester; 9 hours, second semester. (Program com- 
mon to Sections A and B.) 

I. Philosophy * 

Introduction. Object and divisions of philosophy. 
Psychology. Real characteristics of psychological facts. Con- 
science. 

1 KoLLAND, Plan d'iducation, p. 114. 

2 The accompanying order imposes no restrictions upon the teacher. It is 
sufficient that he treat all the questions indicated. 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 291 

Intellectual Life. The phenomena of consciousness. Sensations. 
Images. Memory and association. Attention and reflection. For- 
mation of abstract and general notions. Judgment 
and reasoning. Creative activity of the mind. Rela- -^^^ p.^PP'^y }^ 
tion of language and thought. Development and role ^^ Form°^ ^ 
of rational principles. Formation of the idea of 
extension. Perception of the external world. 

Emotional and Impulsive Life. Pleasure and pain. Emotions and 
passions. Sympathy and imitation. Tendencies. Instincts. Habit. 
The will and the character. Freedom. 

Conclusion. Mind and body. Psychic automatism. Personality; 
idea of self. 

Esthetics. Summary notions of beauty and art. 

Logic. Formal Logic. Terms. Proposition. Forms of reasoning. 
Science. Classification and hierarchy of the sciences. Method of 
Mathematical Science. Definitions, axioms, and postulates. Dem- 
onstration. Method of Natural Science. Experiment; observation 
and experimentation. Hypothesis ; theories. Induction and deduction 
in natural science. Classification. Method of Moral and Social 
Science. Processes of psychology. History and social science. 

Ethics.' Object and character of ethics. The phenomena of moral 
consciousness; obligation and sanction. Motives of conduct and the 
end of human life. Pleasure, feeling, reason. Personal and general in- 
terest. Duty and happiness. Individual perfection and the progress of 
humanity. Personal Ethics. Feeling of responsibility. Virtue and 
vice. Personal dignity and moral autonomy. Domestic Ethics. Ethi- 
cal constitution and social role of the family. Authority in the family. 
Social Ethics. Equity. Justice and charity. Co-operation. Rights; 
respect of life and personal liberty; property and labor; freedom of 
thought. Civic and Political Ethics. The nation and the law. The 
country. The State and its functions. Democracy; civil and political 
liberty. 

Metaphysics. Value and limits of knowledge. Problems of early 
philosophy; matter; the soul; God. Relations of metaphysics to 
science and ethics. 

II. Philosophical Authors * 

Xenophon, Memorabilia, one book. 

Plato, Phcedo, Gorgias, one book of the Republic. 

Aristotle, one book of the Nicomachean ethics, and one of the Politics. 

1 In the treatment of personal as well as social ethics, the teacher will 
emphasize the danger of alcoholism and its moral and social effects : moral 
degradation, race weakness, misery, suicide, criminality. 

2 The teacher will choose four texts from this list. These will be discussed 
in class and will serve as a basis for expounding the systems of philosophy 
which they represent. 



292 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Epictetus, Manual. 

Marcus Aurelius. 

Lucretius, De natura rerum, Book II. or V. 

Seneca, Extracts from the Letters to Lucilius and the Essays. 

Cicero, De offLciis. 

Bacon, On the advancement of learning. 

Descartes, Discourse on method; Meditations ; Principles, Book I. 

Pascal, Thoughts, and minor works. 

Malebranche, On the search for the truth, Book I. or II. Talks on 
metaphysics. 

Spinoza, Ethics, one book. 

Leibnitz, New essays, introduction and Book I. Theodicy, extracts. 
Monadology. Discourse on metaphysics. 

Hume, Treatise of human nature, one book, 

Condillac, The sensations, Book I. 

Montesquieu, Spirit of the laws. Book I. 

Rousseau, Social contract, one book. 

Kant, Foundations of the metaphysics of ethics. Prolegomena. 

Jouffroy, Extracts. 

A. Comte, Course of positive philosophy, lectures I and II. Discourse 
on positivism. 

CI. Bernard, Introduction to the study of experimental medicine, part I. 

Stuart Mill, Logic, Book VI. Utilitarianism. Liberty. 

Spencer, First principles, part I. Introduction to sociology. 

Locke, Essay on the human understanding, Book I. 

Cournot, Materialism. Vitalism. Rationalism. 

The course in the two sections of the mathematics form, 

three hours per week, is divided into two parts entitled 

respectively Elements of scientific philosophy 
Philosophy f ^, , . j 2 ■, 7 -riir-.i "^^i 

in the ^nd Elements of moral fhilosopliy. With the 

Mathematics exception of an introductory paragraph for 

each they are identical with the work under 

Logic and Ethics of the philosophy form. 

It is the presence of this philosophy instruction that most 
strikingly differentiates the curriculum of tlie secondary 

Phil so h schools in France from those of the other gi-eat 
in the nations. It owes its introduction primarily to 

Curriculum, ^j^g absence of any clearly defined rift be- 
tween the fields of secondary and higher learning. It owes 
its continuance in large measure to the peculiar function 
the secondary school performs in the intellectual life of the 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 293 

country, namely, that of providing not an introduction to, or 
preparation for, liberal culture, but that of supplying that 
liberal culture itself. The Polytechnic School, the Military 
School at Saint-Cyr, the Higher Normal School, the medical 
schools, the law schools, — none of these can be considered 
as schools of general culture ; they are essentially profes- 
sional schools. It is even reasonably certain that many of 
the students of the arts and the science faculties are fol- 
lowing purely professional courses. Of the thirty-four 
thousand native men students enrolled under the various 
faculties and in the other medical and pharmaceutical 
schools on January 15, 1908, only nine thousand, or slightly 
more than a quarter, were found in the arts and the science 
faculties,^ and when account is taken of the students in 
the professional engineering schools of various sorts, this 
proportion is relatively decreased. In other words, for more 
than three quarters of its pupils, the lyc^e provides the only 
liberal culture. There are no official figures available for 
determining this proportion accurately, but it is certainly 
not an overstatement of the case, for it has made no allow- 
ance for the number of young men who quit school entirely 
on obtaining their bachelor's degree. With this view of the 
role played by the secondary school in the educational 
scheme, the presence of philosophy in its curriculum is 
amply justified. Absorbing as it does in the philosophy 
form a great part of the time and the thought of the stu- 
dent, it has an opportunity to unify, to synthesize in his 
mind, the instruction of the previous years. Whether or not 
it embraces this opportunity is largely dependent on the 
teacher. I have seen some very good teaching, and I have 
seen some very bad teaching, that is, from the pupils' point 
of view. In other words, some teachers treated the sub- 
jects in a most abstract fashion, apparently unmindful of 
the difference in intellectual power between themselves 
and their pupils. In such classes, a small number would 
grasp the significance of the discussion, a few more would 

^£uU. adm., 1908, I., p. 423. 



294 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

strive with evident effort to follow, while the great ma- 
jority would sit quietly by, nonchalantly awaiting the sum- 
mary of the discussion which they could memorize for 
next time. On the other hand, I came across other teachers 
that, by aptness of illustration, by the practical application 
to the affairs of every-day life, succeeded in arousing an 
eagerness and interest in discussion that augured well for 
the general grasp on the subject. 

As the detailed program will show, the psychology is 

entirely of the older static or analytical type, experimental 

P^y^^^-^^SJ' except so far as it may be touched 

in the" upon in the lectures of the teachers, having no 

Philosophy place in the course. It seems to be the gen- 
Form 

eral feeling that the whole field must be fairly 

well in hand before any experimentation is feasible. One 
seldom finds a text-book in the hands of the pupils, and 
then it is used only as a reference book. The following 
questions that formed the review work in one class I visited 
will convey some notion of the sequence of topics and the 
general method of questioning : (1) " Discuss perception." 
The first boy called upon had evidently done nothing more 
than memorize the analytical summary given at the end of 
the last hour. He recited very glibly the schematic outline 
with its divisions into the physical, physiological, and men- 
tal aspects, but that represented the extent of his knowledge. 
The next boy called up had a good grasp of the subject and 
gave a very creditable recitation. (2) " Explain Fechner's 
law." (3) " Discuss the threshold of sensation." (4) "Ana- 
lyze the sensations." The influence of the memory was 
again strikingly apparent in response to the third question 
above, for the numerical measures of the threshold of sensa- 
tion for touch on the tongue, the fore finger, and the back 
were strongly emphasized. It was the 1 mm., the 2 mm., and 
the 69 mm., rather than the significance of these differences 
that seemed to have made the deepest impression on the pu- 
pil's mind. Although only five boys were called upon, this 
review of the lecture of the previous day consumed nearly 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 295 

forty minutes of the first hour. It was essentially almost a 
personal matter between the teacher and the pupil reciting, 
for the others were chiefly occupied in reading over their 
own notes, and the first boy that had failed so signally set 
about preparing a lesson in some other subject. At this 
point, the topic for the written paper to be handed in five 
days later, " The psychology of desire," was assigned, and 
with the careful preparation that characterizes all French 
instruction, the teacher threw out numerous helpful sugges- 
tions for the proper handling of the subject. A process of this 
sort not only reduces to a minimum the chance of getting a 
worthless paper, but it saves the average pupil much profit- 
less groping about for a method of attack and thus repre- 
sents the highest type of teaching. The remainder of the 
first hour, and, after a five-minute intermission, the whole 
of the second hour were given up to a further consideration 
of perception and its relation to sensation. The teacher was 
an unusually clear lecturer and he stirred up a lively dis- 
cussion, unfortunately confined to only three or four out of 
the fifty boys in the class, when he broached the subject of 
the dreaming and the waking life. 

In view of the extreme freedom granted the teachers of 
philosophy, it is rather presumptuous to attempt to give any 
standard arrangement of the work. Here is a scheme that 
is followed by one of the teachers in a Paris lyc^e, which is 
fairly representative of what one would find in the better 
schools : October, general introduction to the philosophy 
course ; November, December, and January, psychology ; 
February and the first half of March, logic ; from the middle 
of March to the middle of April, metaphysics ; May and 
June, ethics. This covers four periods of two hours each 
per week, three of them being devoted to lectures and recita- 
tions, and the fourth to correction and discussion of the 
written papers. During the second half year, there is an 
additional hour per week devoted to an exposition and dis- 
cussion of the philosophic authors of the program. There 
is no attempt to give any connected history of philosophy, but 



296 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

merely to interpret the particular philosophical doctrines of 
the authors in question. The teacher contrived to set apart 
an additional half hour per week during the first half year 
for this same purpose, Descarte's Discourse on method is 
always taken up by this particular teacher during the first 
semester, the authors of the second semester varying from 
year to year. This year the others were Comte, Montesquieu, 
and Aristotle. 

The philosophy course in the mathematics form is consid- 
erably more limited in scope having only three hours per 
. week as opposed to eight and a half in the let- 

Olo.ss in i fill- . 1 •! 

osophy. Math- ters sections. Here psychology and the phil- 
ematies Form. osopMcal doctrines are omitted, the time being 
shared by logic and ethics, the former with particular refer- 
ence to its bearing on the special scientific work the pupils 
are doing. In one class that I visited, the subject was " The 
philosophical basis of biology," the teacher showing the ev- 
olution of the present day biology from the old natural his- 
tory, and bringing out clearly the advances in modern 
method. The class was extremely wide-awake, the exercise 
at times assuming the form of an open discussion rather 
than a lecture. In touching upon the general biological 
theory toward the latter part of the hour, the controversy 
became more animated, one pupil rather insisting upon an 
answer to his question as to whether an evolutionist was a 
" believer " or not. The teacher avoided a direct reply for 
some time with many protestations that he was not compe- 
tent to answer the question categorically, but finally said he 
saw no reason why the two positions need be at variance. In 
response to my mild expression of surprise after the class at 
the quasi-theological aspect the discussion had assumed, 
especially in view of the somewhat delicate state of the 
religious question in France at the moment, he replied that 
the French students were particularly fond of turning these 
discussions either toward religion or politics, and so long as 
they did not touch upon dangerous ground he for one saw 
no harm in it. 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 297 

There seems to be a growing dissatisfaction among the 
philosophy teachers themselves with the character of the 
work in the letters sections. The feeling is 
more or less wide-spread that the pupils are philosophy, 
approaching the problems in a less truly philo- 
sophical spirit, that they are too willing to accept unques- 
tioningly the dictum of the teacher, an attitude that betokens 
a decreased interest in the subject itself. Agreement as to 
the facts has nevertheless brought no unanimity as to the 
fundamental causes. The new program cannot be held 
entirely responsible for all this changed attitude, for the 
trend was already well marked before the change became 
effective. It is probably a contributory cause, however, with 
the real reason lying deep down in that utilitarian tendency 
that thrusts aside speculative, philosophical thought for the 
more alluring practical pursuits. It is worthy of note in 
passing that coincident with this decadence of the phil- 
osophical spirit in the letters section, the former apathy 
toward philosophy in the scientific section has been corre- 
spondingly modified. It must be borne in mind, nevertheless, 
that there much of the philosophy is very closely related to 
the science work of that course. 

In appreciating the philosophy instruction in the second- 
ary schools, one must keep in mind the spirit and purpose 
underlying it all. The psychology is not 
taught to make psychologists; the logic, ^c^ufsg^*^ 
logicians ; the ethics, moralists ; the meta- 
physics, metaphysicians ; the philosophical doctrines, phil- 
osophers ; but rather with the hope of giving these young 
men toward the end of their liberal education some notion 
of what philosophy really means, a notion that shall serve 
as a fitting introduction to the later consideration of the 
subject if they pursue their studies further in the arts 
faculty of the university, or if they enter upon their pro- 
fessional training or go directly into the world of affairs, 
that shall send them into life with an insight at least into 
some of the intellectual problems that have held the atten- 



298 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

tion of thoughtful men ever since the race began, all the 
time considering the philosophy not as a special science, but 
as an element of and a means toward general culture. 

Morale 

A subject that is very closely allied to the philosophy 
instruction of the first year is the morale of the fom'th and 
third forms, to which the application of the English term 
" ethics " would be a little misleading, but which is really 
nothing less than an elementary treatment of that subject 
adapted to the comprehension of lads of thirteen or fourteen 
years of age. It is placed thus in the last two years of the 
first cycle with the avowed intention of fulfilling a purpose 
partially similar to that of the philosophy at the end of the 
course, in order to show those pupils that may leave the 
lyc^e at that point some of the responsibilities devolving 
upon them as members of present day society, and to give 
them some formal, definite standards of conduct which shall 
govern their further attitude toward themselves, toward 
their fellow men, and toward the State. 

The detailed program given below, which is required of 
all pupils in the fourth and third forms, will show the topics 
discussed : 

FOURTH FORM 

Morale, 1 hour. Lectures, recitations, systematic conversations suit- 
able alike for strengthening the feelings favorable to the moral develop- 
ment and for overcoming the contrary tendencies. 

Sincerity. Frankness and the spirit of deceit. Truth and falsehood. 
Being and seeming. Hypocrisy. Courage. Bravery and cowardice. 
Vigor and laziness. Perseverance and fickleness. Courage against 
suffering, against pleasure, to resist opinion for conscience's sake, to 
recognize one's faults, to confess. Moral weakness. Moral delicacy. 
Disgust at vulgar pleasures. Uprightness. Stealing, fraud, injustice. 
Keeping one's word. Uprightness of the school boy. Goodness. Af- 
fection for parents, brothers. Comradeship. Friendship. Politeness. 
Pity and cruelty. Generosity. Ivindness toward animals. Education 
OF Self. Feeling of moral dignity as opposed to dishonor. Self-control. 
Strength of character and disinterestedness. Authority of conscience and 
respect for law. The upright man. 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 299 

THIRD FORM 

Morale, 1 hour. Lectures, recitations, systematic conversations 
adapted to enable the pupils to understand the value of human and 
social aims. 

Solidarity. Action and reaction of individuals upon each other. 
Individual's debt to society; influence of his actions upon his social en- 
vironment. Duties resulting from solidarity. Obligation created by the 
instruction one has received. Justice and Fraternity. Rights of the 
individual. Freedom of thought; tolerance. Rehef (of the poor). The 
Family, its social and moral role. Vocation. Moral and social obliga- 
tion of work. Vocational activity as a social function. Vocational up- 
rightness. Spirit of initiative, of association. The Nation. Idea of 
country. Inculcation of patriotism; love of country as a vocational 
duty. The State and the Laws. Legality. Functions of the State. 
Democracy and the principles of 1789. Humanity. International re- 
lations, justice. CiviUzation. Individual Liberty and Social Dis- 
cipline. The good citizen. 

As to whether or not this instruction attains the desired 
end there is no unanimity of opinion. Time alone can 
answer, and long before the reply is ready, 
countless other forces play upon the individual 
and so complicate the problem that no answer is ever re- 
turned. At all events, one is inclined to be sceptical of the 
success of any attempt to inculcate by a direct method feel- 
ings which must be worked out in action, like truth, courage, 
perseverance, integrity, politeness. The fact that a specific 
period of one hour per week is set apart for such a series of 
lessons would seem likely to militate against the very pur- 
pose for which it is given, namely, that the mind shall 
become so permeated with these higher feelings that all 
those tendencies of a baser sort will forever be inhibited. 
The conviction expressed by M. Croiset, the distinguished 
Dean of the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne, that "the 
best lesson is perhaps that which occupies no fixed time in 
the school program, but which comes forth spontaneously, 
naively from the very personality of the teacher and from all 
his words " has not yet found general acceptance. Contrast 
with this the feeling expressed by oue of the head masters 
who would have morale in the program if only for policy's 



300 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

sake : " If this instruction does not figure in the program 
under a special rubric, it is strongly to be feared that many 
families and a great number of the pupils would believe in 
good faith that it was not found in the lyc^es." ^ 

As a matter of fact, the subject occupies a place in the 
curriculum in response to a general feeling that some pro- 
vision must be made for accomplishing the work formerly 
attributed to the religious instruction. Since the complete 
laicization of public instruction in the early eighties, all the 
religious training in the lyc^es has been optional, the govern- 
ment continuing to maintain the chaplains there just as 
before. The recent dissolution of the Concordat, however, 
is just now begianiQg to have its effect in the lyc^es, and the 
positions of those resident priests are being suppressed; so 
that not long hence they will have all disappeared, and the 
Catholic clergy will then come in from outside the schools, 
just as their Protestant and Jewish brothers have long been 
compelled to do, in order to give religious instruction to the 
boys of their faith. In the meantime this " moral " instruc- 
tion, imposed upon all, sets before itself the peculiarly diffi- 
cult task of establishing for boys of thirteen or fourteen 
years of age a certain standard of ethical principles that 
shall serve as the basis of conduct throughout the rest of 
their lives. 

Common Law 

The common law which receives one hour per week in the 
third form Division B is another subject introduced for the 
purpose of orientating the pupils that leave at the end of 
the first cycle with respect to some of the fundamental legal 
principles upon which the national life is based. These are 
treated from the point of view of the individual's rights and 
responsibilities with respect to the State and with respect to 
the family. The accompanying program is sufficiently 
explicit to show the general method of handling, so that no 
further comment is necessary : 

1 Quoted in Darbon, L'ensei^nement de la morale au lyc6e, in Revue uni- 
versitaire, 1907, II., p. 12. 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 301 

Introduction. Law. Custom and law. Relation between ethics and 
law. Public law : constitutional, administrative, criminal, international. 
Private law: civil, international, commercial, civil procedure. Codes. 

I. PUBLIC LAW 

Rights op a French Citizen. Civil liberty. Individual liberty of 
conscience, of religious belief. Liberty of work, of trade, and of manu- 
factures. Liberty of meeting and of association. Liberty of the press. 
Voting taxes. Military service. National Sovereignty and Uni- 
versal Suffrage. Constitutional laws of 1875, revision of 1884. 
Public powers : legislative, executive ; why and how separated. Leg- 
islative: senate and deputies. Executive: President, ministers, par- 
liamentary government. Administrative Organization. Division of 
France. Department : prefect and general council, departmental com- 
mission. Arrondissement : sub-prefect and arrondissement council. 
Commune: mayor and municipal council. Judicial Organization. 
Publicity and gratuitousness of justice. Jurisdiction in civil and com- 
mercial cases : (1) justice of the peace; (2) courts of first instance ; (3) 
court of appeal ; (4) courts of business ; (5) trade councils; (6) supreme 
court of cassation. Ministry. Officers of justice : barristers, attorneys, 
notaries. Summary notions of administrative jurisdictions: prefectoral 
councils, council of State. The audit office. General Principles of 
Criminal Law. Infractions and penalties. Charge and guilt ; attend- 
ant circumstances. Courts of repression : preliminary examination at 
examining jurisdiction; courts of punishment: police courts; assize 
courts ; court of cassation. 

II. CIVIL LAW 

Individual and the Family. (1) Nationality; citizenship. (2) 
Constitution of the family: marriage. Blood and marriage relation- 
ship. Family rights and duties: parental and marital authority. (3) 
Protection of incompetence: minors, insane, spendthrifts, and weak- 
minded. (4) Establishment of the principal facts of civil life; legal 
papers.* Possessions. (1) Property, how acquired. Inviolability (dis- 
possession for public purposes) . Principal divisions : usufruct, charges 
against the property. Copyrights and patents. (2) Laws of credit; 
different kinds of obligations. Incomes. Private incomes; sources of 
obligations; contracts and defaults. Summary explanations of the 
most common contracts (sale, lease, transportation, business). Proof 
of contracts. Privately executed deeds. Creditors' rights. Negotiable 
secm-ities. (3) Means of obtaining credit; secured debt, mortgage, 
commercial paper. Inheritance. (1) Interstate inheritance. Classes 
of heirs. Share disposable and reserved ; equality of distribution. Ob- 
ligations of the heirs: inventory fee. (2) Testamentary inheritance. 
Forms of wills; varieties of legacies. 

1 Birth, marriage, and death certificates. 



302 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Drawing 

Drawing is one of the most extended of all the courses in 
the Trench secondary school program, commencing in the 
infant class and continuing until the very end. The fact 
that it is optional in the letters sections of the first and 
philosophy forms subordinates it slightly to French, history, 
geography, mathematics, and science, but in the science 
sections it is second to none, surpassing there even the 
mother tongue, for in the linal year of the course that disap- 
pears entirely as a separate subject of instruction. To be 
sure the drawing never occupies a very large share of the 
time, in the letters sections never more than two hours per 
week, but its constant presence suggests the importance of 
the r5le played by the aesthetic in the French philosophy of 
education, a phase of general culture alas ! too universally 
neglected in our American courses of study. Artistic feeling 
and appreciation are too subtle to be evaluated. We have 
no definite unit in terms of which we can even approximate 
their worth. They certainly have no direct commercial 
value, at least for the great majority, and the average Ameri- 
can school board is too much engrossed in the tangible 
results to afford more than grudging support to the fine arts. 
Small wonder, then, that France far surpasses us in the 
wide-spread appreciation of and love for the beautiful. The 
place given to drawing in the public schools is one very 
potent factor in the creation and development of this artistic 
spirit. However much one may object to the formal char- 
acter of the course, it certainly accomplishes results that are 
strikingly apparent not only in the superior excellence of the 
drawing itself, but that reach over into the mathematics and 
science note books of the school course and even stretch out 
into the life beyond. Here, also, the French artists receive 
their preliminary training, and the suggestive and selective 
function of this elementary art work cannot be overestimated. 

The following program will show the development of 
the course with its extremely logical organization of subject- 
matter : 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 303 

Infant Class. Line combinations. Elementary exercises on co-ordi- 
nate paper, including also drawing from memory and from dictation. 

First Preparatory Form through the Seventh Form, 1 hour per 
week. I. Sketching and division of straight lines into equal parts. 
Evaluation of the comparative relations between straight lines. II. Re- 
production and evaluation of angles. III. Elementary principles of 
decorative drawing. Circumferences. Regular polygons. Star shaped 
rosettes. IV. Regular curves other than the circumference. Elliptical 
curves, spirals. Curves taken from the vegetable kingdom. Stalks, 
leaves, flowers. V. First notions of the representation of objects in 
their real dimensions (elements of geometrical drawing), and in their 
apparent form (elements of perspective). Besides this, exercises in free- 
hand drawing, drawing from memory, and from dictation. 

Sixth and Fifth Form, 2 hours per week. I. Geometrical drawing 
in outline and perspective drawing with light and shade, of geometrical 
solids and simple common objects. II. Drawing from ornaments in 
relief ,1 non-living forms, such as: mouldings, egg shaped and heart- 
shaped ornaments, pearls, denticles, etc. III. Drawing from ornaments 
in bas-relief, living forms, such as : ornamental leaves and flowers, palm 
leaves, foliage, etc. IV. Drawing from architectural fragments, such as : 
dadoes, pedestals, bases and shafts of columns, door facings, cornices, 
etc. V. Drawing of the human head. Elementary notions of its gen- 
eral structure and the proportion of the different parts. 

In the course of the sixth, fifth, and fourth forms, some 
lessons are set apart for architectural drawing with the aid 
of ruler and compass. 

Fourth Form, 2 hours per week. I. Drawing from architectural 
fragments, such as: capitals, masks, claws, griffins, theatrical masks. 
Vases, decorative animal heads. II. Drawing of the whole and of the 
proportions of the human figure from engravings and from bas-reliefs. 
III. Study and drawing of parts of the human body. Elementary no- 
tions of anatomy. The extremities and details of the human figure from 
engravings and from plaster models. 

Except for the simple mechanical drawing which has been 
given one hour per week to the Division B classes of the 
fifth and fourth forms by the mathematics teachers, and the 
loss of one hour per week for those that begin Greek in the 

1 These subjects are all taken from classic models chiefly from Greek and 
Roman art and architecture. The human figures used in later work include 
the well known colossal head of Juno, the masks of Dante, Mazarin, Francis I., 
and Napoleon, and the statues of the Venus de Milo, the discus thrower, and 
Michael Angelo's slave. Thus the course lays under tribute the finest masters 
of ancient and modern sculpture. 



304 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

fourth form, the drawing has all been the same up to this 
point. From now on the two groups of pupils begin to sep- 
arate somewhat as the emphasis upon mechan- 
th.™Courses' ^^^^ drawing in the science sections becomes 

more and more pronounced. 
The free-hand drawing program, two hours per week, 
identical for all the sections of the third and second forms, 
is as follows: 

I. Drawing from architectural fragments. Decorative figures. 

Caryatides. Vases ornamented with figures. Ornamental friezes. 

Third and Ensemble and details of the Doric, Ionic, and Corin- 

Second Forms, thian orders. II. Drawing of the human figure and 

Free-hand of animals from engravings and especially from high 

Drawing. relief models. 

In addition to the free-hand drawing, the scientific stu- 
dents from the third form up have mechanical drawing 
quite distinct from that of the mathematics 
Swiig?^ classes of the lower forms. The program is as 
follows : 



THIRD FORM 

Division B 

Mechanical Drawing, 1 hour. Theory of shades and shadows, 
with wash-drawings of the simpler bodies, surfaces of revolution, and 
machines. Details of the simpler machines. Elevation of the same, 
and their geometrical representation to scale. Some of these draw- 
ings will be washed. 

SECOND FORM 

Mechanical DRA"mNG, 2 hours. (Programs common to Sections C 
and D.) Use of instruments for drawing straight lines and circles (ruler, 
compass, square, protractor). Instrumental drawing of constructions 
explained in the geometry. Geometrical designs: tiling, parquetry, 
mosaic flooring. Use of India ink and water colors for some of these 
drawings. Free-hand elevation drawings of common objects.* 

1 The common objects in this and subsequent classes include: articles of 
furniture, kitchen utensils, joiner's and locksmith's tools, hardware and tiling, 
mouldings, balustrades, and grille work that concern building operations. 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 305 

The four sections of the first form and the two of the 
philosophy form have a common program for free-hand 
drawing, two hours per week, required in the First and 
scientific sections of the first form, but optional YoimT^FvL- 

in the others. hand Drawing. 

The program is as follows : 

I. Development and application of the preceding work (some les- 
sons may be devoted to a study of the head from nature). II. Study of 
landscape from engravings. (When circumstances permit, the pupils 
may have practice in drawing landscapes and buildings from nature.) 

FIRST FORM 

Mechanical Drawing, 2 hours. Elevation of the details, and geo- 
metrical representation in outline, to scale, of the geometrical solids 
and the common objects. Shadows, together with the theory and 
practice of wash-drawing. Elevation of the details and geometrical 
representation to scale of the parts of the simpler machines (some 
being washed). Free-hand elevation drawings of common objects. 

MATHEMATICS FORM » 

Mechanical DRA-mNG, 2 hours. (Programs common to Sections A 
and B.) Continuation of exercises of previous year on shading and 
wash drawing. Spiral surfaces. Notions of perspective. Machine and 
construction drawing. Free-hand elevation drawings of common 
objects. 

Below the sixth form the drawing teaching is in the hands 
of the regular class teachers, but from that point on it is all 
done by highly trained specialists, most of the teachers being 
old Beaux-Arts students. The result is that these men are 
not mere drawing teachers,-^ they are artists. The equipment 
for the drawing is uniformly excellent, large, high, and well- 
lighted rooms with northern exposure, and a bountiful supply 
of plaster models, the walls of some of these studios being 
fairly covered with material. In one of these rooms that I 
visited there were two classes, a third form and a group of 
upper class boys each ranged in a series of concentric circle 

1 There is no program outlined for the two hours optional course in free- 
hand drawing in this course. 

20 



306 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

arcs and eacli working under its own teacher. As is fre- 
quently the case, the third form boys were di\dded into two 
groups according to ability, one sketching the bust of a man, 
and the others still working on a low relief rosette. Occa- 
sionally one finds some of the cleverest fellows modelling 
their own designs in plaster, but this is quite apart from the 
official program, and is encouraged only in exceptional cases. 
Happily the ideas of the independent school have not suc- 
ceeded in divorcing modelling from a thorough grasp of the 
fundamental principles of drawing. 

Gymnastics 

Although gymnastics and gymnastic instruction have 
formed the basis of decrees, orders, and ministerial instruc- 
tions from time to time, the subject does not seem to have 
found a regular place on the official programs. The work 
is still given in accordance with the official circular of 1890 
and the Manuel d'exercices gymnastiques et de jeux scolaires 
published in the following year, for the joint ministerial 
commission appointed in September, 1906, at the instance of 
the Minister of War, to draw up a new uniform program 
of gymnastic instruction to be followed in the schools, in 
gymnastic associations, and in the army, has not yet sent in 
its report. 

Until a little more than twenty years ago, the sum total of 
the work in physical education was limited to gymnastics, 

Development fencing, and a much supervised and restricted 
of the kind of target shooting, the first named receiv- 

Instruction. ^g formal recognition in the official program, 
the two latter being entirely optional, and paid for as extras. 
The gymnastic work was in the hands of special teachers, for 
the most part former instructors of the old military gymnastic 
school of Joinville. Classed as irregulars, these teachers had 
little authority over the boys, and exercised still less control. 
The exercises were all taken bodily from those in use in the 
army, where mere muscular development seemed to be the 
prime object. The result was that these various movements 



OTHER SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 307 

were executed Mindly, without any regard to the physiologi- 
cal influence upon the pupils. The introduction of the Ling 
system of Swedish gymnastics, however, marked a decided 
advance over the former conditions. 

The system at present in vogue is that of M. G. Demeny. 
M. Demeny proceeded in a logical fashion, studying the 

physiological effects of the various movements 

. Purpose, 

upon the growth and the functioning of the hu- 
man organism. His cardinal principle was not to use a single 
movement that he did not know to have a beneficial effect 
upon the boy. This eliminated much of the former work 
which was decidedly special in its nature and of value to the 
soldier class, and furthermore was adapted to the needs of 
the adult rather than those of the young. Free use was made 
of the larger movements that are conducive to proper carriage 
and general sound bodily vigor rather than to those that tend 
to develop the athlete. Throughout it all the aesthetic, the 
economic, and the moral influences are constantly kept in 
view. 

In order the better to realize these ideals, the Minister of 
Public Instruction organized a course in physical education 
in the summer of 1903, under the direction of 
this M. Demeny. It has been given every year Teaching 
since that time in one of the Paris lyc^es, and it 
attracts teachers from all over France. The course consists of 
a series of lectures by specialists in this field of work, largely 
physicians who not only know the anatomy and the physiology 
of the human body, but who also know " the boy," and this 
theory is supplemented by a large amount of practical work in 
the school gymnasium. Those that pass the examination at 
the conclusion of the course receive the higher diploma for 
gymnastic instruction. As fast as the old teachers retire their 
places are filled by the holders of these special diplomas, so 
that before very long all the physical education will be upon 
a distinctly higher and saner plane. 

To the eye of the ordinary visitor, the method of M. Demeny 
seems to follow substantially the Swedish system, though most 



308 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of the movements are performed without even the light 
wands in use there. As long as the weather permits, these 
exercises are mainl}^ conducted in the open air, 
the School^ ^^® gymnasium serving chiefly in periods of in- 
clement weather, and for the jumping, climbing, 
and bar work which furnish an opportunity for competition 
and so serve to vary the dull routine of marches, rounds, and 
ordinary corporal movements. Gymnastic work occupies one 
and a half hours per week, commonly divided into three half- 
hour periods in every class except the Saint-Cyr preparatory. 
In view of the physical examination required of all candi- 
dates for this military school, these boys have two additional 
periods per week, aside entirely from the horseback riding 
which is likewise required of them. 

Although even to the casual observer there has been a 
marked increase in the athletic spirit in France during the 
Lack of ^^^^ ^^^ years, I have never yet seen a gym- 
Interest in nasium class where there was any live, spon- 
t etics. taneous interest in the work. In fact most of 
the boys seem to go through the movements in a most non- 
chalant sort of fashion, as though it were some task that had 
to be done, and the sooner it was over the better. In spite 
of the growing interest ia scholastic sport, it will probably be 
many a year before any game even approximates the position 
occupied by football and cricket in England, or football and 
baseball in the United States. 



CHAPTEE XIV 

THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 

Up to this point there has scarcely been even passing 
reference to the education of girls. When one recalls that 
in May, 1907, were held the commemorative Girls' Lycees 
exercises celebrating the twenty-fifth anniver- of Recent 
sary of the foundation of the first girls' lyc^e, ^ ^" 

the significance of this omission at once becomes ap- 
parent.^ In December, 1880, the law providing for public 
secondary education of girls under state control passed 
the parliament in spite of strong opposition, which in the 
case of the senate seriously jeopardized the passage of the 
bill on more than one occasion. Not that there had been 
no secondary education of girls before that time, but it had 
been exclusively under private jurisdiction, the major part 
of the schools being in the control of the religious teach- 
ing bodies of the church. 

Even in the early years of the nineteenth century very 
little had been actually accomplished toward girls' education. 
" It is only within fifty years," says Madame „ , 
Campan, writing about 1812, "that attention during the 
has been paid to the education of women ; Eighteenth 

1 Pi-i PIT- . Century. 

the progress oi this phase of public instruction 

has been really notable only since the crisis of the French 

Eevolution. Twenty-five years before that epoch, almost 

all the girls spent only a single year in the monasteries, 

and that year was the one destined for a thorough study 

of the catechism, for the retreat, and for the first commun- 

1 The whole June (1907) number of V enseignement secondaire des jeunes 
filles is devoted to the quarter centennial celebration. 



310 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ion. . . . But the practice has long been abandoned of 
leaving girls behind the convent grating up to the age of 
eighteen whence they come forth without knowing how to 
write two words of French." ^ The great social reforms of 
the Eevolutionary period, in spite of their efforts toward 
levelling the existing inequality of the sexes educationally 
speaking, had really accomplished nothing for the secondary 
education of the gentler sex. " They resulted only in phil- 
osophical speculations, and for anything beyond primary 
instruction, their projects are silent ; from the year IV. 
until the year VIII. (1796-1800) the administration re- 
ports of the department of the Seine make no mention 
of any public instruction of a higher order for girls." ^ 

The school at Ecouen, founded by Napoleon in 1807, 
resembled in some respects the old school at Saint-Cyr 

established by Louis XIV. more than a cen- 
Ecouen. ^^^J previous and so intelligently administered 

by Madame de Maintenon. Saint-Cyr was des- 
tined for the education of the daughters of impecunious 
noblemen; Ecouen was intended for the daughters and sis- 
ters of members of the Legion of Honor. A public school 
drawing its pupils from all ranks of society but neverthe- 
less from a very narrow vertical section of society, the chief 
claim to the secondary character of Ecouen rests upon its 
segregation from the ordinary primary schools then in ex- 
istence and upon the fact that it intended to retain its 
pupils until they reached the age of eigliteen years. Out of 
regard to the objections of the general officers to the very 
democratic character of the school, a similar establishment 
was opened at Saint-Denis, two years later, which was set 
apart for the children of officers above a captain, Ecouen 
was soon absorbed by Saint-Denis and under the Eestoration 
disappeared entirely. The instruction and board at both 
these institutions as well as those subsequently founded for a 
similar purpose were free, but there was some provision for^ 

1 Mme. Campan, De Vcducation^ Edition BarrUre, 1824, I., p. 225. 

2 Gr^ard, Enseignement secondaire, I., p. 104. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 311 

board and tuition fees from those in position to pay. At 
one time Ecouen had as many as five hundred pupils. In 
accordance with Napoleon's express direction, religious in- 
struction occupied the first place in the course of study; he 
sought to turn out " believers rather than reasoners." The 
other instruction embraced Trench history, geography, 
arithmetic, writing, dancing (merely to give a proper car- 
riage), drawing, music, sewing, mending, and a kind of 
household economy. This latter included the home ac- 
counts, care of the linen, bed making, cleaning and sweeping 
the class rooms, and laying and serving the meal. The 
attempts to teach washing, ironing, and putting up pre- 
serves were not so successful, for Madame Campan " prompt- 
ly repented of entrusting muslins to their hot irons, and 
fruits and sugar to their inevitable epicurism." ^ She con- 
cluded that this sort of instruction could not profitably be 
given to young women under eighteen years of age. They 
were furthermore taught to look out for their comrades in 
the lower classes, and to give them certain instruction 
with a view to teaching their own children later on. How- 
ever much Madame Campan may have tempered the severity 
of the discipline found in other girls' schools of the period 
and however practical this instruction may have been for 
the young women, it was not always received by them 
with good grace, and some protested vigorously against the 
regime of the school in words that might almost seem to 
have been written by a newly arrived pupil of yesterday : 
" The cruel bell has just made itself heard again ; it 
ceaseth not to sound for the beginning of class work, the 
writing lesson, and the instruction period. I could pardon 
its infernal noise if it would only ring oftener for play 
time. It rings ten minutes before dinner so that we, like 
servants, may fulfil the disagreeable duty of cleaning out 
our desks and sweeping the class room; then it rings for 
dinner, for supper, and for bed; but the most detestable 
of all these sounds is that in the morning : everything 
1 Mme. Campan, op. cit., p. 283. 



312 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

goes like clockwork here. ! how I long for my little 
room at Valma, so calm, so remote from the noise of the 
street ! How unjust I was when I murmured against a 
poor rooster that woke me up, of a truth too often, but 
he at least left me free to go to sleep again ! Here three 
hundred people have to move as one, in accordance with 
a single will, in a set fashion ; there are details, too, that 
disgust me." ^ These schools for the children of the mem- 
bers of the Legion of Honor do not indicate any very- 
widespread interest in the cause of girls' public secondary 
education on the part of the State, but they represent the 
sum total of its efforts in that direction. 

The First Empire had thus accomplished nothing of a gen- 
eral nature ; its immediate successors were no more fortu- 
P "vat nate. In the meantime private enterprise had 
Venture not been idle. The number of lay and clerical 
Schools. institutions multiplied rapidly, so that by 1848, 
in the department of the Seine alone, there were two hun- 
dred and ninety-four with a population of more than fifteen 
thousand.^ Twenty-eight of these schools were convents. 
The ordinance of the king in 1821 ^ had recognized an order 
of instruction above that given in the primary schools, di- 
viding establishments of this sort into two categories, board- 
ing schools (pensions), and " institutions." As prescribed by 
regulation in 1837,* a document which Gr^ard considers "as 

1 Mme. Campan, Lettres de deux jeunes amies, Aleves d'^couen, p. 51. 

2 Gki^ard, Enseignemeyit secondaire, I., p. 117. 

3 Ordonnance, Oct. 31, 1821, reprinted as Annex I. to Reglcmcnts et ar- 
retis concernant les maisons d'iducationdefilhs, 1844, pp. 488-489. 

* Ibid. , p. 490. This regulation is significant as for the first time distin- 
guishing clearly the scope of these two types of girls' higher schools. The 
diff"erentiation here is plainly along the lines of subject matter. 

The divergence between the boarding schools and the "institutions" seems 
to have become less marked a few years later. See Marie Sincere (JIme. Ro- 
MIEU), Les 2'>ensionnats dc jeunes fillcs, 2d edition, 1854, p. 10, where the in- 
struction in these two kinds of establishments is said to be exactly the same, 
the distinction between the two depending solely upon the grade of diploma 
possessed by the mistress of the school. The head of the " institution " held 
a full diploma from the city hall authorities or from the Sorbonne, while the 
head of the boarding school had merely a second class diploma. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 313 

the first charter of girls' secondary education," the subjects 
of instruction in the boarding schools included : " moral and 
religious instruction, reading, writing, French grammar, 
arithmetic through proportion and the rules depending 
thereon, history of France, modern geography, elementary 
notions of physics and natural history in their practical ap- 
plications, drawing, music, sewing, and modern languages." 
In the more advanced schools, the " institutions," the pro- 
gram embraced all these subjects, together with "the 
elements of literature and the principles of taste as applied 
to style, ancient geography, ancient and modern history, and 
the elements of cosmography." Both these grades of schools 
were essentially boarding schools. With a view to regulat- 
ing the abuses that had crept in as a result of the rapid de- 
velopment of these private venture enterprises, the prefect of 
the Seine, with the confirmation of the Minister in 1844, 
appointed three women to inspect these girls' schools of the 
department.^ Their responsibilities were extended so as to 
include religious as well as lay schools, but in the case of the 
former the official inspection was ordinarily made in co-opera- 
tion with an ecclesiastic appointed by the archbishop. These 
newly appointed women inspectors evidently did their work 
well, for in the next few years there was an appreciable 
decrease in the number of these lay institutions, the less 
desirable of them being forced out of existence. 

For the moment, it seemed as though definite results would 
evolve out of this widespread interest in the education of 
girls. In 1847 the report was noised abroad j>ige and Fall 
that a commission had even then been ap- of Public 
pointed to consider the question of establish- Interest, 
ing girls' colleges that would take rank beside those already 
in existence for boys. The following year an elaborate plan ^ 
was presented to the Minister of Public Instruction for 

1 Mglements et arretis, supra, pp. 487-488. See also Journal g6n4ral de 
rinstructionpublique, Sefit. 13, 1845, p. 482 ; and Mme. Bachellery, iciires 
sur l'€ducation des femmes, I., p. 490. 

2 Mme. Bachellery, Lettres sur V Education des femmes, pp. 211-237. 



314 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

creating a normal school to prepare teachers for these 
colleges-to-be, a plan remarkably interesting for the empha- 
sis placed upon industrial work and household economy of a 
most practical sort. The reactionary Falloux law of 1850, 
however, put an end to all these hopes, A rapid increase in 
the number of private courses taught by women was one of 
the salient consequences of this new law, but no material 
progress toward state established institutions was recorded 
for nearly two decades. Jules Simon in 1867 characterized 
the instruction in even the best of the boarding schools as 
" futile and incomplete, all the accomplishments, but nothing 
serious or elevating." At the same time Minister Duruy 
denied that there was any real secondary education of girls 
in France at all.^ 

Not only did M. Duruy signalize the defect but he also 
pointed out a remedy. As a result of his recommendations ^ 
J, , , . J secondary courses for girls sprang into exist- 
Secondary ence in various parts of France, and thus a 
Courses. foundation was laid upon which the super- 
structure of the college and the lycde could subsequently be 
erected. In Paris a group of well known people formed the 
"Association for Girls' Secondary Education," among the 
"charter members of which was M. Levasseur, the distin- 
guished professor at the College of France, who to-day is still 
the executive head of the organization. Each course came 
once a week for three years, a lecture in letters and one in 
science occupying consecutive hours on Tuesday, Thursday, 
and Saturday afternoons. The year extended from the first 
of December until the end of May, the first half devoted to 
domestic economy and mathematics, literature and natural 
history, French history and chemistry, on Tuesday, Thurs- 
day, and Saturday respectively, and the second half cor- 
respondingly to geography of France and mathematics, 
literature and physics, French history and natural history .^ 

1 Instructions aux rccteurs, Bull, adm., 1867, II., p. 472. 
^ See supra, p. 80. 

8 See the prospectus of the association, iu Bull, adm., 1867, II., pp. 
515-519. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 315 

The program was patterned after that of the newly 
founded " modern " course for the boys' secondary schools, 
although modern language work was conspicuously absent, 
for that demanded a more intensive study than this attenu- 
ated scheme permitted. The succeeding year, however, 
English, German, and drawing were added, the domestic 
economy was replaced by grammar, and the whole course 
was established on a more substantial, logical basis, Eollow- 
ing the analogy of the boys' schools, it led up to a diploma 
which grew more valuable as the standard of the work im- 
proved from time to time. Far from meriting the name of 
school, this was nevertheless an organized system of second- 
ary education for girls under government sanction and con- 
trol which prepared specifically for a government diploma. 
Just as this secondary course formed a step in the evolution 
of the national system of girls' secondary education, so it 
ordinarily constitutes a preliminary stage in the develop- 
ment in any particular community to-day. In other words, 
in case the demand is sufficiently strong, a secondary course 
will be organized in a town, a comparatively inexpensive 
experiment at the most, to try the public temper and the 
public purse if they be ready to undertake the secondary 
education of young women. If the venture is successful, the 
course is likely to be transformed into a college.^ More than 
one of the present lyc^es have passed through these two 
transition stages. Few if any of the early secondary courses 
however, developed directly into the more permanent form 
of college or lyc^e, but they at least blazed the way. The 
secondary courses, which for a long time provided the only 
opportunity for' girls' secondary education, are seldom looked 
upon as permanent institutions, although in some cases the 
communities prefer to support this character of secondary 
instruction rather than to assume the additional burdens and 
responsibilities that the creation of a lyc^e or a college would 
entail. They are almost always in charge of a directress. 

1 Four of the five new colleges opened during the year 1906-7 represent 
thSse transformed secondary courses. Bull, adm., 1907, H-, P- 769. 



316 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

In the few cases where a man is at the head, there is a 
woman associated with him. The teaching force is ordina- 
rily drawn from the staff of the boys' lyc^es or colleges in 
the vicinity. Some of these secondary courses follow the 
regular program of the lyc^es and colleges while many of 
them cut this down appreciably. In either case they have 
no authority to grant the diploma, or even the certificate at 
the end of the third year.^ Their courses in a general way 
prepare for the examinations for the elementary and the 
higher diplomas (brevet elementaire and brevet superieur) of 
the primary school system, so that the pupils successful in 
passing either of these state examinations thus have a sort 
of testimonial of graduation. Every year graduates of these 
courses enter the competition for admission to the school at 
Sevres, and not a few of them are successful. 

The law of December 21, 1880, in definitely ordering the 
establishment of girls' secondary schools, put an end to a 

Establishment discussion that had been going on in the Par- 
of State liament for more than a year, and had more 

Schools, 1880. ^j^^^j^ once given rise to acrimonious debate.^ 
The opposition from the clerical party was particularly vig- 
orous. It was based primarily on the assertion that girls' 
education was already adequately provided for in the schools 
then in existence, although one speaker went so far as to 
point out the great danger to domestic happiness and com- 
fort that would result from over-educating the women.^ A far 
stronger basis for this opposition was undoubtedly the fear of 
loss of prestige through the competition of the state schools, 
and the foreshadowing of the subsequent complete laiciza- 
tion of the whole school system in the omission of religious 
instruction from the course of study. The other chief point 
of contention was as to whether these new lycdes and col- 
leges should be boarding schools or day schools. As finally 

1 Exception is made in the case of the course of the Ligue dc V enseigncment 
at Algiers, which is authorized to grant both these academic distinctions. 

2 For the parliamentary debate and the detailed account of the passage of 
this bill, see Camille S^e, Lrjc6es et colleges de jeunes fillcs, pp. 57-459. 

8 Ihid,, p. 204. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 317 

passed, the law provided for day schools, but it further put 
them on the same footing as the boys' colleges, so that the 
municipalities might annex boarding departments to the 
lycdes at the charge either of the principal or of the com- 
munity. As a matter of fact, boarding departments have 
been added in nearly every case except in the Paris lyc^es, 
so that to the casual observer the organization of these girls' 
schools is no whit different from that of an ordinary boys' 
lycee. The State, however, is relieved of the responsibility 
and the expense of maintaining the boarding departments, 
which experience in the case of the boys' lyc^es had shown 
to be no slight burden. In accordance with the new law, 
the first lyc^e was opened at Montpellier in the fall of 
1881 ; that at Eouen followed at the beginning of the next 
school year; the first at Paris, Lyc^e F^nelon, opened its 
doors in September, 1883 ; Auxerre, the first of the com- 
munal colleges, was opened the month after Montpellier, and 
was in turn followed by Grenoble early the next spring. 

The fees in the girls' lyc^es are considerably lower than in 
the boys', ranging for the day pupils from 40 to 110 francs 
per year ; for the supervised study pupils, from 
55 to 130 francs; for the half boarders, from 
250 to 400 francs; and for the boarding pupils, from 400 
to 600 francs in the lyc^e at Agen, up to 100 to 250 francs, 
150 to 300 francs, 400 to 600 francs, and 825 francs per 
year for the corresponding categories of pupils at Versailles. 
In most cases the fees increase with the advance in class, 
although a few of the schools follow the custom in vogue at 
Versailles of charging a single price for all resident pupils. 
In the Paris lyc^es, where there are no boarders, the day pu- 
pils pay ordinarily from 200 to 300 francs, and for the super- 
vised study periods from 100 to 150 francs additional. The 
fees at the girls' colleges are slightly lower on the whole. 

The following table will show the growth of the lyc^es 
colleges, and secondary courses up to the fall of 1907 : ^ 

1 Statistique de V enseignement secondaire en 1887, t. II. ; SiiiE, op, cit., 
p. 1208 ; Bull, adm., 1907, II., p. 769. 



318 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

GIRLS' LYCl&ES, COLLEGES, AND SECONDARY COURSES 





First foun- 
dations 


Number of 
establishments 


Number of pupils 




1887 


1897 


1907 


1887 


1897 


1907 


Lycees .... 
Colleges . . . 

Secondary 

Courses . . 


Montpellier 
Jan. 1882 ' 
Auxerre 
May, 1882 
Le Roche-sur- 
Yon, May, 
1879* 


20 
23 

69 


36 

27^ 

? 


47 
61 

63 


3330= 

2678 

4395 


7792 
3051 

? 


16760 
10184 

6899 



Public 
Expense. 



In spite of the spread of girls' secondary education during 
the last quarter century, it does not yet occupy the same 
importance in the public eye as does that of 
the boys. The State and the communities have 
spent large sums of money, but they have not 
been lavish in their gifts for this purpose. The total expense to 
the State of the one hundred thirteen boys' lycees for the year 
1908 (exclusive of scholarships and building grants) was about 
fourteen and a quarter millions of francs, while in the forty-six 

* This is the official date of the foundation, although both Mont- 
pellier and Auxerre were opened provisionally in the fall of 1881, the 
former in October and the latter in November. 

^ None of these population figures represents the number of second- 
ary pupils in our sense of the word, for they likewise include the pupils 
in the elementary classes. The lyc6e figures for 1897, for example, are 
composed of 4352 real secondary pupils and 3440 in the lower classes. 
For the colleges in the same year, the numbers are 1648 and 1403 
respectively. 

'' The growth in the number of colleges by 1897 had really been much 
greater than this figure would seem to indicate, for seven of the twenty- 
three in existence in 1887 had in the meantime been transformed into 
lycees. 

* Others had been founded before this, but for one reason or another 
had ceased to exist. This is the return on the basis of those actually in 
existence in December, 1887. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 319 

girls' lyc^es it was a little under two millions/ "With 57,160 
boys and 15,969 girls enrolled in 1906, for that was the school 
population upon which these appropriations were granted, 
the relative difference is seen to be considerable. The board- 
ing department of the boys' schools is undoubtedly respon- 
sible for some of this discrepancy, for try as they will the 
authorities have not yet succeeded in eliminating the deficit 
here; but that is not pertinent to the point in question. 
Some of the girls' lyc^es would be nearly if not quite self- 
supporting were it not for the free tuition granted to daugh- 
ters of teachers and functionaries of the department of public 
instruction, but the boys' lyc^es are a long way from attain- 
ing this position of independence of state support. If figures 
were available for calculating the expenses of the communal 
colleges, the difference in favor of the boys would probably 
be still more striking. In fact, a community has even been 
known to undersupply the girls' college in order to devote 
the surplus toward making up the deficit in the local boys' 
college. Fortunately similar instances are rare, but such 
parsimony suggests that girls' secondary education is not yet 
universally looked upon as a right. 

Many of the early lycdes were established in old buildings, 
remodelled as well as they could be for school purposes, and 
in some instances the discarded boys' lyc^e has . 

been deemed good enough to serve the needs of 
girls' education. The equipment of the girls' lyc^es and col- 
leges on the whole is distinctly inferior to that in the cor- 
responding boys' institutions. On the other hand, in the 
recent addition to the Lyc^e Eacine in Paris, and particularly 
in the new Lyc^e F^nelon at Lille, one finds as efficient a 
type of school architecture as exists in France. In both 
these schools the class rooms are bright and cheerful, and 
barring the proverbially poor ventilation, they are good 
school rooms. Futhermore at Lille the bathing arrange- 
ments are well-nigh perfect. Each girl has a daily shower 
with ample provision for tub baths in addition, the whole 

1 Budget, 1908, p. 398. 



320 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

equipment representing the very highest type of modern 
plumbing. The improvement in bathing facilities in the 
last five years in France far surpasses the progress in any 
other phase of school equipment. Few if any other guis' 
lyc^es have reached the point already attained in Lille, but 
the best of them are even now considerably in advance of the 
boys' schools in this particular. 

The difference between the girls' lycdes and colleges is ex- 
actly the same as pertains in the corresponding boys' schools. 
This similarity further extends to the establish- 

Admmistration. . s- .^ i i ,i • ^- ^^ i • 

ment of the schools, the inspection, the admin- 
istration, and the appointment of teachers. In fact, except for 
the status of the resident pupils, the programs, and the char- 
acter of the work, they present few outward differences. 

The subjects of instruction specified in the origmal law re- 
main to-day unchanged, although important modifications in 
the daily program and in the weekly distri- 
Coiirse and bution of hours per subiect were made in 1897. 

Diploma. r J 

The secondary course proper extends over five 
years, from the twelfth to the seventeenth year, divided into 
periods of three and two years respectively. A sixth year 
has been added in a few lyc^es in order to prepare for the 
entrance examination for the normal school at Sfevi-es. In 
the first period all the work is obligatory, while in the sec- 
ond a considerable degree of choice is allowed. Successful 
passage of the examination at the end of the third year con- 
fers a " certificate of secondary study," and corresponding 
success at the completion of the course brings its reward in 
the secondary diploma {diplome de fin d'etudes secondaircs). 
This final examination is based upon the required work of 
the fourth and fifth classes, together with the optional 
courses of these two years as designated by the candidate. 
While there is no technical objection to the pupil presenting 
all these optional subjects, in practice she makes a choice 
between the letters and the science courses, as represented 
by the second modern language and the mathematics- 
drawing of the fourth and fifth years. The requirements 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 321 

for this diploma are considerably below the standard of the 
baccalaureate. There is apparently no serious tendency 
toward an equalization of these two examinations, nor, in 
fact, is there any reason why there should be, for it is diffi- 
cult to understand how one could reasonably expect the girls 
to accomplish as much work in five years as the boys do in 
seven, and besides these two marks of academic distinction 
are in no sense of the word rival diplomas. Young women 
are not eligible for teaching positions in boys' schools, and if 
they want to prepare for any other of the liberal professions 
they must first pass the regular bachelor's examination as re- 
quired of the boys. There is, however, a likelihood that 
additional classes may be established in some of the lyc^es 
in order to offer an opportunity of preparing for the ordinary 
baccalaureate.^ This would entail no serious difficulty for 
the science-modern language section. The absence of any 
Latin instruction in the girls' schools, however, would pre- 
clude the possibility of giving complete preparation for any 
of the other sections. 

As in the case of the boys' schools, elementary or preparatory 
departments have everywhere been annexed, for the passage 

1 At the session of the Superior Council in July, 1906, M. Appell, Dean 
of the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris, offered the following 
resolutions : 

1. That the secondary diploma open the way to private school teaching 
(opening a boarding or a day school). 

2. That the secondary diploma be accepted by the State as a guarantee of 
sufficient instruction for admitting the holder to examinations and competi- 
tions for positions outside the teaching profession, wherever the primary di- 
ploma is required or confers any advantage (in the post-office department, etc. ). 

3. That preparatory courses for the baccalaureate should be organized in a 
certain number of girls' lycees and colleges. 

The permanent section approved the resolutions with the reservation that 
the last should not be understood as implying the introduction of Latin and 
Greek into the girls' curriculum, but simply as advancing the instruction al- 
ready in existence there. The Minister adopted the approval of the section. 
Bull, adm., 1906, II., p. 793. 

During the remainder of the year a vigorous discussion was carried on in 
the pages of the review Venseignement secondaire des jeunes filles on the equal- 
ization of the two secondary diplomas, the abolition of the baccalaureate, and 
kindred subjects suggested by the above resolutions. 

21 



322 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



from the public primary schools to the girls' secondary- 
schools does not exist in practice. This elementary course 
is arranged by each directress for her own 
Elementary gci^ool, subject merely to the approval of the 
rector, but it generally conforms very closely 
to the following type schedule: 

WEEKLY PROGRAM 

ELEMENTARY CLASSES OP THE GIRLS' SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

(Hours per week) 



Subjects 



French .... 
Modern languages 
History .... 
Geography . . . 
Arithmetic . . . 
Nature study . . 
Needlework . . 



Infant 


I. 


II. 


class 


9-10 


10-11 


8-9 yrs. 


yrs. 


yrs. 


^ 


6i 


6* 


n 


2i 


2i 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 


1 




2h 


2i 




h 


i 


* 


* 


* 



III. 

11-12 
yrs. 



6i 
2i 
1 
1 



No definite amount of time specified. 



This differs in several noticeable details from the corre- 
sponding program in the boys' schools : (1) the late period 
of beginning, eight years of age as against six in the case of 
the boys (as a matter of fact these are both reduced about 
two years in actual practice); (2) the absence of arithmetic 
in the first year of the course ; and (3) the comparatively 
small number of week hours. M. Gr^ard expressed the true 
significance of these differences very suggestively when he 
said in another connection : " Boys' secondary instruction had 
its traditions. Girls' secondary education lent itself much 
more easily to novelties, being itself a novelty." ^ This really 
discloses the secret of the great difference between the pro- 



1 GuiAED, Ensdgnement sccondaire, I., p. 126. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 



323 



gi'am, the regime, and the general spirit pervading the 
girls' schools in contrast to that which prevails in the boys' 
schools. 

The following are the subjects of instruction and the 
number of hours per week in the five years of the secondary 
course proper under the present program : ^ 

WEEKLY PROGRAM 

girls' secondary schools — FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD YEARS 



Subjects 



Ethics 

French language and literature 
Modern language ...... 

History 

Geography 

Mathematics 

Natural history 

Physics and chemistry . . . . 
Domestic economy and hygiene 

Sewing 

Drawing 

Singing 

Gymnastics 

Totals 



204 



Years 



II 



2 
2 
1 



20* 



III 



1 

3i 

3 

2 
1 

2 



12 lectures of 
one hour each 
2 \ (mini- 
2 I mum 
1 j for each 
H I year) 



21 



1 Arrets, July 16, 1897. 



324 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



FOURTH AND FIFTH YEARS 



Required subjects 



Ethics 

Psychology appUed to ethics and educa- 
tion 

French language and literature . . . . 

Ancient literatures 

Modern foreign literatures 

Modern language 

History 



Geography . 
Cosmography 
Common law 



Physics 

Physics and chemistry 

Animal and vegetable anatomy and physi- 
ology, hygiene 



Yeara 



IV 



^ (1 hour 
for one 
semester) 

i "- 



H 



^ (1 hour 
for one 
semester) 



Totals 



13i 



13^ 



Optional subjects 



Mathematics 

Additional modern language 

Sewing 

Drawing 

Singing _ 

Gymnastics 



Totals 



Grand totals 




THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 325 

Perhaps the most striking modification introduced by this 
reform of 1897 was the suppression of the optional Latin in 
the last two years of the course. Despite the characteristics 
radical nature of the program in its earlier of the 
form, the old spirit of classicism was not en- •t^'ogram. 
tirely eliminated, for Latin was offered as an optional subject 
one hour per week in the fourth and fifth classes. As might 
have been expected, the amount of work accomplished in 
this brief time was quite unsatisfactory, so that scarcely a 
voice was raised in protest when it was finally abolished. 
As the program stands to-day, it is essentially " modern," 
with all direct influence of classic tradition eliminated. 

There is, however, an interesting vestige of Latin and 
Greek culture in the ancient literature of the fourth year, 
while the foreign literatures of the fifth year 
carry this down to the present time. This is Literatures, 
an effort to bring the pupils in contact with the 
greatest literary masterpieces of the Greeks and Eomans in 
the ancient world, and with the classic writers of Italy, 
Spain, England, and Germany in the modern world. By 
taking up the authors in chronological order, at least by 
countries, the course serves as a cursory sketch of the devel- 
opment of literary history. Although naturally subject to 
all the limitations of any translation, it nevertheless gives 
the young women the very best thought that the world has 
produced, and introduces them to a breadth of literary culture 
that many of our own non-classical college students never 
appreciate. The one hour per week is quite inadequate to 
cover the ground satisfactorily, but even with this short time 
the pupils read over a wide field. There are several series of 
texts prepared for this very purpose, all similar in general 
plan. In one such series, Attic tragedy, for example, is 
covered in a single volume of some two hundred pages, 
containing three plays of ^schylus, six of Sophocles, and 
six of Euripides. There is a biographical account of each 
author, followed by careful translations of selected passages, 
sometimes of whole scenes. The omissions are supplied by 



326 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

brief summaries of the intervening events, so that one is able 
to get a fair notion of the development of the plot and the 
characters. The Electra of Sophocles, for instance, was all 
covered in fourteen pages of text with a page of introduction 
on the play as a whole. Two topics I heard assigned for 
the next lesson were : (1) Compare the writings of Sophocles 
and ^schylus ; (2) Differentiate the rSles of the chorus in 
these two authors. 

The following complete program will give a clearer 
idea of the scope of this subject, the fourth year being oc- 
cupied with the ancient literature and the fifth with the 
modern : 

I. GREEK LITERATURE 

The Homeric epic : Iliad, Odyssey. Hesiod. 

Lyric poetry (iambic, elegiac, ode) : Solon, Pindar. 

Attic tragedy: Jilschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. 

Attic comedy : Aristophanes, Menander. 

History: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius. 

Eloquence : Demosthenes. 

Philosophy: Socrates, Plato {Apology, Crito, Phcedo), Aristotle. 

Theocritus, Plutarch, Lucian. 

II. LATIN LITERATURE 

Republic. — Comedy: Plautus, Terence. Lucretius. Cicero. His- 
tory: Caesar, Sallust. 

Empire. — Poetry: Horace, Virgil, Lucan. History: Livy, Tacitus. 
Philosophy : Seneca. Pliny the Younger. Christian literature. 

FOREIGN LITERATURES 

Italy: Dante, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso. 
Spain: The Cid and Romanceros. Cervantes. The drama. 
England : Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Addison, Pope, Byron, Words- 
worth. The contemporary novel. 

Germany: The Niebelungenlied. Goethe, Schiller. 

In the girls' schools the term " modern languages " signi- 
fies almost exclusively English and German. With the 
single exception of Brest every one of the forty-seven lycdes 
offers courses in both these languages, and some of the 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 327 

schools near the southern border offer Italian or Spanish in 
addition.^ There are six schools where the former is found, 
and three where Spanish is given. Using the number of 
teachers of each language as the measure of its appreciation, 
the English and the German seem about equally popular, 
with seventy-nine teachers of the former and sixty-six of 
the latter language in the lyc^es.^ A large part of this 
difference is found in the five schools in Paris. Outside the 
capital there has been practically no relative change during 
the past eight years. At that time the numbers were respec- 
tively fifty-seven and forty-nine. The modern language 
course begins in the infant class and continues as an obliga- 
tory subject throughout all the nine years, with the option of 
taking up a second modern language in the last two years. 
It follows the same direct method of instruction, with the 
principles applied rather less rigorously than in the boys' 
schools. 

Traces of the concentric circle plan of studies are discern- 
ible in the organization of the history and geography 
courses, but they are less pronounced than in p^-otyram in 
the boys' schools. The history of the elemen- History and 
tary classes is largely national biography and ^^gra.^ y. 
history stories, although in the last year there is a very 
summary account of ancient history down to the end of 
the Eoman Empire. In the secondary course proper, the 
work of the first year covers ancient Gaul, and European 
history through the period of the Eeformation ; the second 
year, Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; 
the third year, France, and a very little attention to general 
nineteenth century history. The last two years, the period 

1 Arabic is taught in the two colleges and in the secondary courses in 
Algeria. 

2 This basis of computation unduly favors the German. No official figures 
are available, but with very few exceptions, according to common report, the 
number of pupils in the girls' schools studying English is far in excess of the 
number studying German. In the boys' schools, on the other hand, thanks 
to the requirement in German for entrance to the Ecole Polytechnique and 
Saint-Cyr, the conditions are quite reversed. 



328 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

that might almost be called the second cycle, are entirely 
given over to a history of civilization. The geography pro- 
gram follows more nearly the scheme that prevails in the 
primary school system: the first year, the world except 
Europe and Asia ; the second year, Asia, and Europe except 
France ; the third year, France and her colonies. The geog- 
raphy ends in the fourth year, where the time is evenly 
divided between explorations of the nineteenth century and 
cosmography. 

The mathematics program is not very extensive, the 
required work being limited to arithmetic and plane 
M th f geometry. There is a good deal of very help- 
ful constructive geometry in the first year that 
not only paves the way for the demonstration work of the 
third year, but furthermore provides a thorough drill in the 
application of the metric system. The optional work of 
the last two years includes arithmetic, a thorough re- 
view of plane geometry, a little solid geometry, enough 
algebra to solve simple equations of the first and second 
degree, and cosmography in its more apparent phenomena. 

In spite of the thoroughly formal character of the sewing 
in the girls' schools, they certainly attain remarkably 
„ . creditable results. Beginning with the Froe- 

'^' belian exercises of folding, weaving, and braid- 
ing in the infant class, it continues among the required 
subjects until the end of the third class of the secondary 
course. In the elementary section it is almost exclusively 
mere needlework, but in the upper classes the girls design, 
cut, and make articles of clothing for themselves. I saw 
one girl of thirteen or fourteen years of age at the Lyc^e 
Eacine in Paris who was wearing a shirt waist entirely her 
own make that for iit, finish, and style would have done 
credit to a professional dressmaker. Such work as this, 
however, is entirely optional with the pupils. Not all of 
them have the skill nor all of them the inclination, but they 
are given every encouragement in this direction if they are 
interested enough to provide their own material. Other- 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 329 

wise the underclothes and the children's garments that 
make up the major part of the practical work are sent to the 
various charitable societies and the hospitals of the neigh- 
borhood. The national economy is very strongly marked by 
the importance attached in this course to repairing. The 
mending of the French housewife is really beautiful to see, 
and the school exercises in this iield not only include 
plain darning, but they also extend to imitating the knitting 
stitch of ordinary underwear, as well as the pattern weave 
in table damask. Graphic representation of the stitch on 
paper and the working of a sampler are the inevitable 
preliminaries to the actual work. There is some instruction 
in machine sewing, but this is naturally reserved for the 
higher classes. 

The population of the girls' schools is drawn from a 
rather more limited cross section of society than is that 
of the boys' schools, for the pupils of the „, ^ _ , 
former come almost exclusively from the the School 
middle and the professional classes. The upper Population, 
middle class {haute bourgeoisie) and the remnants of the no- 
bility send their daughters to private schools, while the lower 
classes send theirs to the primary schools, where the tuition 
is free. The consequence is that the girls' secondary 
schools do practically nothing toward the recruitment of the 
industrial and the commercial army. These ranks are filled 
from the primary, the higher primary, and the professional 
schools. In these secondary schools rather more than half 
the pupils drop out after the third class on completing the 
first cycle. In fact, the number leaving at any other time 
than here and at the end of the whole course is com- 
paratively insignificant. It is impossible to ascertain what 
proportion carry their studies on beyond the regular fifth 
year of the course ; there are no official figures available, 
and the estimates vary so widely. It is safe to assume that 
these are the ones that have to earn their own living; some 
turn toward the university and the higher professional 
schools, while others begin their practical preparation for a 



330 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

teaching career. It is to satisfy this latter demand that 
some of the lyc^es have added the sizth year which fits 
directly for the higher normal school at Sfevres. 

The whole atmosphere of the girls' schools is strikingly 

different from that of the boys'. In the latter there is 

a prevailing feeling of repression, of a lack 

Atmosphere. ^^ individual freedom, of a coldness in the 
very air itself, of an ultra barrack room regime 
that more than one boarding pupil has found well-nigh 
unendurable. In the former, on the contrary, things are 
light and cheery ; there are everywhere evidences of a 
cordial good feeling, almost of comradeship, between the 
teachers and the pupils; the life at the school is freer; 
there is more time for recreation on ordinary days, and more 
frequent opportunity for the pupils to get outside the 
grounds. All in all, it is a most pleasing contrast to the 
rigidity of the regime to which the boys are subjected. In 
most of the schools that I visited, each girl had a room for 
herself, a kind of cubicle, to be sure, formed by constructing 
a series of partitions seven or eight feet high within the old- 
time spacious dormitories, but it gives each one a sense of 
privacy and individuality that is not possible where twenty 
or thirty sleep in a single large room. Furthermore, each 
one was responsible for the care of her own room, and 
opportunity was freely granted to decorate it with cards and 
pictures according to individual taste. Most of the schools 
still adhere to the regulation black pinafore, but occasionally 
one finds a directress, lilvC Mile. Ecolan at Auxerre, who 
recoils at the monastic severity of the traditional dress. 
At Auxerre the girls wear dark blue in winter, and in 
summer white aprons large enough to answer the purpose of 
a frock, thereby avoiding the sombre similarity of the 
prevailing black. In the girls' schools as a whole there are 
evidences of a consistent attempt at school decoration. 
This same lycee at Auxerre is noticeable for the progress in 
this direction. There are flowers in profusion, and every 
class room has fine photographic reproductions of well- 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 331 

known paintings or plaster casts of bits of classic sculpture. 
The same spirit of academic independence, so to speak, 
pervades not only the program, but its application as well. 
In the boys' schools, even from the very start, practically 
everything is focusing upon a single point — the baccalaure- 
ate. This is the gate through which everybody that aspires 
to a professional career must pass, and all energies are 
consequently bent, and all efforts subordinated, to attain- 
ing this goal. The certificate at the end of the girls' 
secondary course, on the contrary, occupies no such domi- 
nating position. It is rather an evidence of work accom- 
plished than a passport to future preferment. 

Since the organization of girls' lycdes, the teaching force 
has been composed of both men and women. For a time 
the men were in the ascendancy on account of 
the lack of women competent to do the work, Teaching 
but since the normal school at Sevres began 
sending out its graduates in 1883 the women have rapidly 
overtaken the men, so that to-day only thirty of the one hun- 
dred and seventy teachers in the purely secondary classes 
of the girls' lyc^es in the Academy of Paris are men, while 
the number for the rest of France is practically negligible. 
The academic quahfications of the teachers in the early 
schools were considerably lower than they are at present. 
At first practically the highest standard attainable was the 
higher diploma (brevet superieur) of the primary school 
system, but the precaution was taken of demanding a con- 
siderable period of successful teaching experience in addi- 
tion. To-day, as in the boys' schools, the agregation is 
required for appointment as a regular professor, although 
lower qualifications, such as the certificate for teaching in 
girls' secondary schools, the master's degree in letters or 
science, or the certificate of modern language teaching, are 
accepted for appointment as acting professors. In the 
colleges the standard is necessarily somewhat lower. There 
is not the close specialization in the girls' schools that one 
finds in the boys'. When the competitive examination for 



332 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the girls' agreg at ion was instituted in 1884, there were only 
two orders, one for letters and the other for science. Ten 
years later each of these was divided into sections, the let- 
ters into the literary and the history sections, and the 
science into the mathematical and the physical-natural 
sciences, but this was shortly followed by a circular in 
which the Minister specifically stated that an agregce of one 
section could not thereby refuse to teach classes in the other 
section of the same order, in case the exigencies of the 
situation demanded it.^ 

Hardly had the law providing for the establishment of 

girls' secondary schools been promulgated before the spon- 

j ^. sors of this movement set about creating an 

Foundation i i i i • 

of the School institution that should assure the preparation 
at Sevres. q£ competent teachers for the new schools 
shortly to be established. A new bill was quickly drafted, 
rushed through Parliament, and only seven months later the 
complementary law to that of December, 1880, was placed 
upon the statute books. The school founded in pursuance 
of this law was finally located at Sevres in the old eigh- 
teenth-century chateau that had long served for the famous 
state pottery factory. The building was entirely remodelled 
within, and with its simple architecture, its spacious park, 
its commanding position overlooking the valley of the Seine, 
with Paris in the distance, it serves admirably as the home 
of the highest institution in the land that is devoted exclu- 
sively to the education of women. The work of reconstruc- 
tion was quickly completed, so that by December, 1881, the 
school was ready to receive its first pupils. The severity of 
the later competition must have been lacking in these first 
entrance examinations, for, in the words of one of the candi- 
dates, " the examiners tried to find out not what we knew — 
alas, we knew so little ! — but what we were worth . . . the 
chief effort of these men seemed to be to find questions 
which we could answer. When our answers were good they 

1 Circ, Aug. 17, 188 4, in See, oj). cit., pp. 693-694. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 333 

were positively enchanted."^ The course at first was only- 
two years, the pupils being divided into two sections, one 
for letters and the other for science. The subjects of .the 
former included mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural 
history, and botany, with ethics, literature, elocution, draw- 
ing, and hygiene occupying a relatively subordinate position. 
Those of the latter included literature, French, philosophy, 
ethics, history, geography, and elocution. The two sections 
had classes in English or German, common law, cutting and 
dressmaking in common. With the institution of the new 
order of agregation in 1884, the course was extended to 
three years, the examination for the certificate for teaching 
in girls' secondary schools coming as before at the end of 
the second year at the school, and the agregation at the end 
of the third year. 

Admission to the school is solely by competitive exami- 
nation. Applicants must be French, not less than eighteen 
nor more than twenty-four years of age in 
January first of the year in which they present ^ Entrance 

•^ •' '' ^ ilixamination. 

themselves, and nobody may be a candidate 
more than three times. Besides the regularly attested legal 
papers that are required of all French citizens at almost 
every turn, each competitor must have the secondary di- 
ploma, the bachelor's diploma, or the higher diploma of the 
primary system. The examination is partly written and 
partly oral, the first or written part being held simultane- 
ously in each center of departmental government throughout 
the country. The papers are all sent on to Paris to be read 
by two examining boards, one for letters and the other for 
science, of the teachers at Sevres. There are five examina- 
tions for each section, most of them being four hours in 
length. For the letters section the papers are as follows : 
French literature, four hours ; grammar, two hours ; history 
and geography, four and a half hours (three for histoiy, and 
one and a half for geography) ; elements of ethics and psychol- 

1 Mlle. Lejeune, quoted in S^e, op. cit., p. 988. 



334 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

ogy applied to education, four hours ; English or German, four 
hours ([1] translation, and [2] short composition in the foreign 
language with the aid of a dictionary entirely in that lan- 
guage). For the science section the papers are as follows : 
arithmetic and geometry, four hours ; physics and chemistry, 
four hours (two and a half for physics and one and a half for 
chemistry) ; natural history, four hours (two and a half for 
zoology and one and a half for botany) ; English or German, as 
above. 

The specific programs for these examinations are care- 
fully delineated each year by ministerial order.^ In general 
they follow rather closely upon the programs of the last 
two years of the secondary course, although a more mature 
handling of the subject matter is demanded, the breadth of 
the work in geometry being notably more extensive. In lit- 
erature, history, geography, ethics, and psychology, these pro- 
grams show considerable variation of topics from year to 
year, but in the scientific subjects the scope is necessarily 
less variable. For example, the history in 1908 was based 
upon Greek civilization, modern European civilization, con- 
temporary France, and Germany and Italy from 1848 to 1871, 
subjects drawn from the regular programs of the third, 
fourth, and fifth years. In geography the topics were: (1) 
the coasts of France ; (2) Italy ; (3) the United States ; and 
(4) the British Empire. In ethics and psychology a dozen 
or fifteen of the books assigned for philosophical reading in 
the philosophy form of the boys' lycdes were suggested to 
guide the reading of these candidates. The modern language 
examination is based upon the authors read in the fourth 
and fifth years of the girls' secondary programs. 

The results of these examinations are sent to the Minister, 
who publishes a list containing the names of the "admis- 
sibles." This is ordinarily about twice as long as the final 
list will be. Every fall, soon after the opening of the 
academic year, the Minister issues an order in accordance 

1 See Programmes dcs conditions d'admission d Vdcole normale sccojidaire de 
Sevres en 1908. Collection Delalain, no. 63. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 335 

with the probable needs of the service, specifying exactly 
how many places there are for each of the competitive 
examinations for the coming year. At Sfevres in 1907 and 
1908 there were sixteen in letters and fourteen in science, 
rather above the average for the last few years. In July, 
1907, then, thirty-two young women in letters and thirty-one 
in science were summoned to the school, the government 
paying the expenses of the railroad trip to Paris and return, 
and allowing them in addition six francs per day during the 
examination period. As a result of the oral examination, 
which is based upon the same subjects as the previous 
written, the best and most promising candidates are selected 
for appointment to Sfevres. They must contract to serve in 
the department of public instruction for at least ten years, 
or, in case of failure so to do, to reimburse the State at the 
rate of one thousand francs for each year spent at school. 

Once admitted to Sevres, they are practically supported at 
government expense for three years, provided of course they 
keep up their work and pass the necessary 
examinations. They live at the school with school ^ 
no fees for board, lodging, or instruction, and 
with all expenses connected therewith defrayed. In distinc- 
tion from the practice at the primary normal schools, how- 
ever, they must furnish their own clothing and renew it as 
occasion requires. The life at the school certainly ought to 
be delightful. They live here amid pleasant surroundings, 
in a comfortable, homelike, sympathetic environment, in the 
midst of eighty or ninety other young women all working 
like themselves toward a common end, and each one can 
devote herself unreservedly to preparing for her life work. 
There is the utmost possible freedom ; each student has her 
own room, which she decorates and arranges according to her 
taste and where she is as much at home as if she were with 
her own parents. Judging by the rooms I had the honor of 
seeing, the life here does not differ very materially from 
what one would find among the more serious-minded of the 
students at our American women's colleges. They are at 



336 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

liberty to go walking if they choose on pleasant days 
between six and seven in the evening in groups of not fewer 
than three, while Thursday afternoons and Sundays are quite 
free. Mile. Belugou, the present head of the school, is a 
charming woman, vitally and socially interested in the per- 
sonal welfare of the young women committed to her charge, 
and far enough removed from the traditional convent regime 
to appreciate that she is dealing with mature young women 
who have a serious purpose in life and who no longer need 
to be kept under constant surveillance. 

The teaching staff falls into two general classes, the pro- 
fessors and the tutors. The former, twenty-seven in number, 

and all men, with the exception of the two 
'^sTaff ^ modern language, and the one sewing teacher, 

are a very distinguished body, drawn almost 
entirely from the professors at the Sorbonne and the College 
of France. They meet their students ordinarily once a 
week for a lecture which is supposed to last an hour and a 
half, but which is sometimes extended to nearly twice that 
length. This work practically forms a regular university 
course. In addition to this the tutors meet these same 
classes again during the week in order further to explain 
the lecture work, to quiz the pupils, to assign papers to be 
written, and in general to supplement the regular teaching. 
Since these tutors are all women who live at the school, they 
are in position to be of constant service to the students. In 
the letters section there is one tutor for each of the first 
two years, while in the science there is one for each of the 
great fields of instruction, mathematics, physics-chemistry, 
and natural history. In the experimental sciences the tutor 
is in charge of the laboratory work, which ordinarily occu- 
pies one half day per week, and the tutor in natural history 
arranges frequent botanical excursions in the neighborhood. 
These five tutors are all agrcgces, chosen from among the best 
in the lyc^es. The two modern language tutors, however, are 
not of the same rank. They are prospective teachers in the 
lyc^es, young women who already possess the certificate for 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 337 

modern language teaching in secondary schools and who are 
working toward their agregation. They receive no salary, 
but live at the school on the same financial basis as the 
students. The appointment itself carries with it a certain 
honor, and the holders have considerable time to themselves 
for study, and even for following courses at the Sorbonne. 
They have no regular classes, but meet the students at table 
and in small groups of three or four for conversation in the 
foreign language. The fact that Sfevres does not attempt to 
prepare modern language teachers,^ and that the English 
and German are studied there purely from the cultural 
point of view accounts for the difference in status of these 
teachers as compared with those in letters or science. 

For each of the first two years all the letters pupils and 
all the science pupils have identical programs. The weekly 
schedule on the following page will show this more in detail. 

The work of the first year is relatively easy, thus giving 
the young women an opportunity to recover from the severe 
strain they have been working under for several years back, 
and enabling them to adapt themselves gradually to their 
new regime. The work of the second year is determined by 
the program of the examination for the certificate for 
teaching in girls' secondary schools. At this examination 
the normal school young women have to compete against 
students from the outside who have been preparing at private 
schools or even at the Sorbonne or at provincial universities, 
but it is perhaps unnecessary to state that the Sevres pupils 
usually head the list of successful candidates. In 1907 
there were about a hundred competitors for the twenty-five 
appointments in letters and the sixteen in science,^ while in 

1 Inasmuch as the certificate for modern language teaching is the same for 
both men and women, tlae details for this examination will be found later. 
Cf. infra, pp. 373-374. 

2 Bull, adm., 1906, II., p. 868. As a matter of fact, advantage was taken of 
the elastic provision in the Ministerial order allowing for an increase in the 
number of places if the exigencies of the service and worth of the candidates 
make such a modification desirable, so that there were thirty-one appoint- 
ments iu letters. Bull, adm., 1907, II., p. 367. 

22 



338 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



GIRLS' NORMAL SCHOOL AT SEVRES 

PROGRAM OF THE FIRST AND SECOND YEARS 





FlHST Yeak 


Second Year 




Letters 


Science 


Letters 


Science 


Monday a. m. 
p. M. 


Geography 
(every two 
weeks) 

Elocution 


Sewing 


Elocution 
(every 
two weeks) 
History 

English or 

German 

Literature 


Chemistry 


Tuesday a. m. 

p. M. 


Literature 

History 
(first third 
of the year) 


Physics 


Ethics 


Etliics 
Mathematics 


Wednesday 
a. m. 

p. M. 


History 
(second 
third of the 
year) 

Grammar 


Mathematics 


Grammar 


Botany 


Thursday 

A. M. 


Sewing 


Chemistry 


History 




Friday a. m. 
p. M. 


History 

Literature 
(every two 
weeks) 


Natural history 

English or 

German 
Literature 

(every two 

weeks) 


Literature 
Geography 


Physics 

English or 
German 

Literature 
(every two 
weeks) 


Saturday 
a. m. 

p. M. 


English or 
German 

Psychology 


Mathematics 
Psychology 


English or 
German 


Natural 
history 

Mathematics 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 339 

1908 the number of applicants was considerably greater with 
no increase in the number of places. In case a normal 
school student is not successful, however, she loses her 
appointment and is obliged to leave the school to begin 
teaching at once in one of the provincial colleges. The few 
that are thus unfortunate usually come back after two or 
three years to try the examination again. If successful this 
time, they are reappointed for their third year at the school. 
The examination for the certificate for teaching in girls' 
secondary schools is a competitive examination,^ partly 
written and partly oral, according to the usual 

Certificate for 

fashion. Tlie written examinations are held Teachin<^ in 
annually in the department centers ; the orals Girls' Second- 
are always at Paris. There are four papers for ^^^ 
each of the two sections, letters and science, with four hours 
allowed for each. The letters papers are : (1) a literary or a 
grammatical subject ; (2) ethics or psychology applied to 
education; (3) history; (4) a modern language (English, 
German, Italian, Spanish, or Arab, translation into French 
and into the language chosen). The science papers are: 
(1) mathematics ; (2) physics and chemistry ; (3) natural 
sciences ; (4) literature or ethics. For the oral examination 
various periods from half an hour to three hours are allowed 
for preparation of the subject after the topic is assigned. The 
response is thus in some cases practically a short lecture 
before the examining jury. The subjects for the letters 
examination are: (1) reading a selection in French, with 
historical, grammatical, and literary commentary ; (2) devel- 
opment of a topic in history or geography; (3) questions on 
the subject not assigned in (2) ; (4) questions on ethics and 
the methods of education and instruction ; (5) interpretation 
of a modern language selection, followed by questions asked 
and answered in that language. The oral examination for 
the science candidates covers the strictly scientific subjects 
in the written, together with a modern language examination 

1 See Appendix K for the program of this examination for the letters 
section in 1908. 



340 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

as in the letters section, and the interpretation of a bit of 
literature. The various subjects of the examination are not 
all equally important. They are weighted with certain co- 
efficients, the final mark for each subject being obtained by 
multiplying the mark actually received on the examination 
by the coefficient for this particular subject. For the letters 
section the written and the oral examinations in modern 
languages are each weighted at three, while for each of the 
other examinations the coefficient is five. In other words, 
the modern language is relatively only three fifths as impor- 
tant as is each of the other subjects of the examination. In 
the science section the mathematics coefficients are five, the 
physics and chemistry, four, the natural science, three, the 
literature or ethics, two, and the modern language only one. 

Once safely through the examination for the certificate, 
the student settles down for her final year's work, the prep- 
aration for the agrcgation, the highest diploma 

Sevres : Third ■ ^ 2 ^ j.r \i-i.i- • i. 

Year's Work, required 01 secondary teachers. At this pomt 
the letters students are subdivided into two 
groups : (1) those preparing for the agrcgation in literature; 
and (2) those preparing for the agrcgaiioii in history. The 
science students are likewise divided into the mathematics 
and the natural science groups. Thus each one is able to 
concentrate her attention almost exclusively upon the sub- 
jects of the examination that is awaiting her at the end 
of the year. 

The program for this third year at Sevres is found on the 
following page. 

In the letters section the students take either literature 
and grammar, or history and geography, according to the agre- 
gation they are seeking, but they have all the other subjects 
in common ; while in the science section, history of art and 
common law are optional, ethics and literature are pursued 
by both groups alike, and the line of cleavage runs between 
the mathematics on the one side, and the physical and nat- 
ural sciences on the other. The training during this last year 
is partly a continuation of the lecture method of the two 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 
GIRLS' NORMAL SCHOOL AT SEVRES 

PROGRAM OF THE THIRD YEAR 



341 





Letters 


Science 


Monday a. m. 
p. M. 


Ethics 

Elocution (every two 

weeks) 
English or German 


Ethics 
Chemistry 


Tuesday a. m. 
p. M. 


History of art 

Common law 
History (second half 
year) 


History of art 

(optional) 
Common law (optional) 
Physics 


Wednesday a.m. 
p. M. 


Literature 
Grammar 


Mathematics 


Thursday a. m. 


History (first third of 
the year) 




Friday a. m. 
p. m. 


Literature 
Geography 
English or German 


Mathematics 
Botany 

Natural history 
Literature (every two 
weeks) 


Saturday a. m. 


History 





previous years and partly a series of lessons prepared by the 
students for presentation to their classmates following as 
nearly as possible the general method of procedure they 
would use before a lyc^e class. The number of these lectures, 
for that is practically what they are, naturally depends upon 
the size of the class and the attitude of the teacher, but 
probably in no case exceeds four or five during the year, not 
a very extensive amount of even semi-practical work. The 
lesson is criticised by the professor in charge of the course 
immediately following its presentation. As class room expe- 
rience, this really counts for very little, for its value has 
been thoroughly emasculated by the absence of real second- 
ary pupils. Some of the students come a little nearer prac- 
tical teaching in tutoring backward pupils at the near-by lyc^e 
at Versailles. Such work, however, is entirely unofficial ; it 



342 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

forms no regular part of the training at the school ; and it is 
entirely a personal matter between the directress of the lycee 
and the individual students. The latter naturally welcome 
this opportunity, for not only is it an honor to be selected, 
but furthermore they are paid by the lycde for the tutoring 
they do. 

The year 1907-1908 witnessed the commencement of real 
practice teaching, an innovation at Sevres, but an experience 
that has already been required for many years 
l^achin^ at the young men's normal school. The stu- 
dents at Sevres were sent to the girls' lyc^es in 
Paris. The work was begun so late in the year that each 
student had only about half a dozen lessons. It is conse- 
quently impossible to judge of the success of the scheme. It 
is reasonable to suppose, however, that it will be continued, 
and that successful experience of this sort will eventually 
become one of the prerequisities for candidacy for the 
agrSgation. 

The examinations for the agrcgation, like those at the end 

of the second year for the secondary certificate, are competitive, 

with a very limited number of appointments.^ 

The rpj^g number of candidates is likewise limited, 

Agr4gation. 

for only holders ot the secondary certmcate or 

the master's degree are eligible, and these in turn, especially 
as far as the possessors of the secondary certificate are con- 
cerned, represent the survival of the fittest after a series of 
selections. The written examinations are held simultaneously 
at various centers all over France. For the letters candidates 
these are three in number, one in ethics or education, four 
hours, and one in a modern language, two hours, both required 
of all candidates, with an additional literary paper, four hours, 
for the letters section, and a history paper, four hours, for the 
history section. On the science side there is likewise an ex- 

1 For 1903 the nnmher of appointments in letters was thirteen (nine for the 
letters section, and four for the history section) ; in science, eleven (five in 
mathematics, and six in physical and natural sciences ). Bull, adin,, 1907, 11., 
p. 607. 



THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF GIRLS 343 

amination in ethics or education for all candidates, and two 
papers, one in arithmetic and algebra, and one in geometry 
and cosmography for the mathematics section. The physical 
and natural science sections also have two additional papers, 
one in physics and one in natural science. All the written 
papers for the science students are four hours in length. The 
oral examinations, held only at Paris, resemble those for the 
secondary certificate already described. All the letters can- 
didates have one in a modern language, with twenty minutes 
for preparation. The special examinations, essentially lessons 
as they would be taught before a class, consist of one each 
in literature, ethics, and grammar for the letters section, and 
one in history and one in geography for the history section. 
From one to three hours are allowed for the preparation of 
each of these lessons, and a half hour for the presentation. 
The mathematics candidates have one lesson in each of the 
two groups of subjects indicated for their written examina- 
tion ; while the physical and natural science candidates have 
one in physics, one in chemistry, and one in natural science. 
They have three hours apiece for the preparation, and three 
quarters of an hour for the presentation of these topics. 

Such, in brief, is the preparation for teaching in girls' second- 
ary schools. The examinations have occupied a relatively 
large place in this account, but they likewise t> <; 

*= -T 'J Keiinement 

occupy a relatively large and important place in of the 
the preparation itself. The prospective teacher Product, 
is constantly confronted by examinations ; she meets them at 
every turn, with every one carefully prescribed as to eligi- 
bility conditions, requirements, and scope. To one who is ac- 
customed to the free and easy ways of entering the teaching 
ranks in America, the whole system seems remarkably formal 
and unnecessarily complicated, but the survivors represent a 
highly refined product, one which on the academic side, at 
least, could with difficulty be improved upon. We have seen 
that the specialization has gradually become narrower and 
narrower as the student advanced, until at length it is con- 
fined almost exclusively to the subjects she intends to teach. 



344 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Such specialization is of course possible only in a highly or- 
ganized system under a central control like that which exists 
in France, but it certainly produces a body of teachers of a high 
degree of intelligence and eminently qualified for the work 
they have to do, a body of teachers who must bear the brunt 
of the burden in realizing the conviction that M. Lavisse had 
in mind when he said : ^ " Thus France has need of all her 
children. The time is passed when we can afford to scorn 
the assistance of the half of France." 

1 Lavisse, Address at the Trocadero, May, 1907, in L' eTiseignement desjeunes 
filles, 1907, I., p. 287. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE HIGHEE NORMAL SCHOOL AND THE 
TRAINING OF TEACHERS 

Although it is now almost exactly one hundred years since 
the professional training of secondary teachers has been a 
reality in France, even at the time of the 
Normal School of the Convention, this idea beginnings 

' in 11 ranee. 

was by no means new. As early as 1645 the 
rector of the university, Dumonstier, had proposed to " train 
up at university expense a certain number of promising chil- 
dren {enfants de honne esperance) who could thereby become 
regents or preceptors," ^ but the suggestion does not appear 
even to have been discussed. The expulsion of the Jesuits 
from France in 1762, depriving the country as it did of a 
large part of its secondary teaching force, necessitated a 
thorough reorganization of the existing educational system, 
and plans for such a reform were reported in several of the 
provincial parliaments.^ RoUand, in following out the sug- 
gestions of Abb^ Pdlissier, was especially specific in his de- 
mands for the establishment of institutions in connection 
with each university for the preparation of young men for 
the teaching profession.^ The most that resulted from this 

1 JouRDAiN, Histoire de V University de Paris, p. ]57. Dupuy, Le centen- 
naire de I'dcole normale, p. 8, cites other more successful efforts during the 
seventeenth centur)'. 

2 Cf. La Chalotais, Plan d''4diccation ou d'4(udes pour la jeunesse [in 
Brittany], 1763. 

GuYTON DE MoRVEATT, M€moire sur VMucation fuhlique, avec le prospectus 
d'un colUge suivant les principes de cet oicvrage [in Burgundy], 176 J:. 
Holland, Compte rendu aux Chambres assemblies, Paris, 1768. 
8 Ibid., pp. 59-68. 



346 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

general interest was the establishment of agregations in phi- 
losophy, rhetoric, and grammar in 1766. In the meantime 
the training school idea had already become firmly estab- 
lished on the other side of the Rhine, thanks to the efforts 
of Francke, Felbiger, Basedow, and their successors, whence 
it was destined to exert a powerful influence on the subse- 
quent plans of the Convention leaders. M. Dupuy^ has 
traced very clearly and convincingly the channels through 
which this Teutonic influence spread to France and finally 
bore fruit in the Normal School of the year III., or Normal 
School of the Convention. This first real but short-lived 
normal school in France was in existence only through the 
spring months of 1795,^ and its formative influence was prac- 
ticably negligible. Although the present school held a cen- 
tennial celebration in 1895, this was really a little premature, 
for the only thing in common between the existing institution 
and the revolutionary experiment was the name. The earlier 
school was intended to train teachers of teachers, but at its 
close left nothing to posterity but a tradition. 

The present Higher Normal School, to give its official title, 
in reality dates from Napoleon's founding of the University. 
The School "^^^^ decree of 1808 ® provided for " the estab- 
of the First lishmcnt of a normal boarding school intended 
Enipire. ^^ accommodate as many as three hundred 
young men, who should there be trained in the art of teach- 
ing the letters and the sciences," Thus Napoleon, with char- 
acteristic foresight, planned for training the teachers and 
administrative officers of the educational institutions called 
into existence in consequence of this same imperial fiat. In 
some respects the new school which was opened in 1810 re- 
sembled the school of the present day rather than the one 
in existence before the reform of 1903, for it was closely 
affiliated with the College of France, the J^cole Foli/technique, 
and the Natural History Museum, and in 1810 was made an 

1 DUPUY, op. ciL, pp. 22-32. 

2 Cf. supra, p. 62. 

8 bicret, March 17, 1808, art. 110. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 347 

annex of the faculties. The students of the school registered 
with and followed the courses of three professors in the fac- 
ulty of arts or the faculty of science, according to the sub- 
jects they were preparing to teach.^ This university work 
was supplemented by conferences and quizzes at the school 
in charge of the tutors, which assumed, during the last months 
of the course, the form of lectures by the students themselves, 
intended to demonstrate their teaching ability. Under this 
plan the academic training was chiefly in the hands of the 
professors of the faculties at the university, while the pro- 
fessional was intrusted to the tutors at the school itself. 
The academic standard of the school was considerably lower 
than it is at present, for in those early days the students came 
up for the bachelor's examination at the end of the first year, 
and for the master's at the end of the second, failure in the 
former case entailing forfeiture of the appointment. The ten 
best students were allowed to remain a third year, in order 
still further to perfect themselves for their profession. They 
were immediately given the title of agrege, ordinarily granted 
only to the lower masters in the lyc^es and the regents of the 
colleges after competitive examination, and they served as tu- 
tors for the other classes. During the two years of the course 
the student lived at the school at government expense. This 
included board, lodging, and ordinary university charges, but 
examination and diploma fees as well as expenses for books, 
paper, ink, and pens were at their own charge. This, then, 
was the real beginning of the present school. The entrance 
was entirely dependent upon competitive examination ; the 
function of the school was to recruit the teaching force in 
the secondary schools ; and the number of intrants was de- 
termined each year in accordance with the probable needs 
of the lyc^es and the colleges. These characteristics have 
been retained until the present day. 

Although the Napoleonic university would have been 
shorn of much of its power had the ordinance of February, 

1 Statut, March 80, 1810, § III. Recueil de lois et rhglements concernant 
r instruction jpublique, V., pp. 172-175. 



348 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

1815, ever been enforced, the Normal School was left in un- 
disturbed possession of its former prerogatives. Its course 

would even have been augmented by an addi- 
Under the tional year, the agregation being conferred by the 

Eoyal Council of Public Instruction after ex- 
amination at the completion of the third year. The value of 
this distinction, nevertheless, had been considerably cheap- 
ened by the abolition of the competitive examination, espe- 
cially since it could also be granted to ordinary teachers in 
the lycdes and colleges after five years of service provided 
they were willing to assume the obligations toward the uni- 
versity that were imposed upon the normal school students, 
that is, to contract to teach for ten years.^ Toward the close 
of 1815, however, there was a radical change in the course, 
whereby it was definitely lengthened to three years, with the 
subject matter of the first year common to letters and science 
students alike. This extra year in a way preceded the old 
course, for the work consisted in a review of the ground 
previously covered in the college (the lycees at that time 
were called royal colleges), together with a course in logic, 
and one in mathematics. The normal students were required 
to pass the baccalaureate in letters at the end of the first year ; 
those in science to pass the baccalaureate in science at the 
end of the second year (the letters degree was prerequisite) ; 
and all had to pass the master's examination at the end of 
the third year. The privilege of the former complementary 
year was still retained as an additional incentive for the ten 
best students. The school for the first time appears to stand 
forth as a separate institution, and to assume some of that 
independence that characterized its position for the last half 
of the nineteenth century. The courses given by the profes- 
sors of the two university faculties play but a relatively 
small part in the work of the school, the greater part of the 
instruction being given at the school itself, and under the 
control of the director. In those days the school year was 
long and strenuous, for " it opened the second day of Novem- 

1 Arr£ti, Nov. 30, 1814, ibid., p. 518. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 349 

ber and continued without interruption until the fifteenth of 
September." Even during the short vacation which followed 
there was little chance of the students acquiring habits of 
indolence. Before they left the school, they were given a 
list of topics for the fourth quarter upon which they would 
be examined on their return at the opening of the year.^ 
The internal regulations of this same period, ^ which repro- 
duced almost exactly the prescriptions of 1810, are interest- 
ing at this distance, but they must have been decidedly 
irksome to the young men of eighteen or twenty who were 
subjected to them. 

§ 42. " When a student has obtained permission to go to 
another's room, the door must remain open all the time he is 
there." 

§ 43. " While the students are in their rooms, the key must be 
on the outside" (as the regulation of 1810 added, "in order that 
the surveillant may enter as often as he deems it necessary"). 

§ 44. "There is never a fire in the private rooms; but during 
the severe weather the students may study in the hall of their 
division which is warmed by a stove." 

§ 56. " The students are allowed to go out alone once a month." 
(This last indicates enormous progress since 1810, for then such 
permission was never granted.) 

During this same period the letters students came up for 
the master's degree at the end of the second year, and shortly 
afterward, 1821, the third year for these same 
students became specifically the preparation for 
the agrSgation. There were then three orders : (1) in science ; 
(2) in the advanced classes in letters ; and (3) in grammar. 
For the first two of these competitions, the master's degree 
in the corresponding faculty was prerequisite, while for the 
agregation in grammar the simple bachelor's degree sufficed. 

One of the early acts of the ultra-catholic reaction that 
grew stronger and stronger as the third decade of the nine- 

1 Mglcment, Dec. 5, 1815, ihid., VI., p. 75. 

2 Ekjlement, Dec.l4, 1815, ibid., VI., pp. 75-90. 



350 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

teenth century progressed was the suppression of the normal 

school. The royal ordinance says with legal bluntness : 

Suppression and "The great Normal School at Paris is sup- 

Ee-creation of pressed ; it will be replaced by the partial nor- 

the School, ^^^ schools of the academies." ^ These so-called 
partial normal schools which had been ordered established 
the year before in Paris and at the various academy seats 
were nothing more than appendages of the colleges. The 
number of students in each " school " was limited to eight, 
with a four-year course which in reality could have can-ied the 
pupils but little beyond the ordinary course, for pupils were 
eligible to compete for the appointments after completing the 
third form. They were to remain two years longer in the capa- 
city of study-room masters. The inadequacy of this prepara- 
tion, especially in contrast with the work that had been done at 
the Paris school, at once becomes apparent, so it is not sur- 
prising that after a brief interval, which in reality was no 
experiment at all, for the schools were not put in practice, 
a substitute for the normal school was established in the 
" preparatory school " attached to the College Louis-le-Grand 
in Paris.^ Placed under the direction of the head master of 
the college, this school reproduced some of the characteris- 
tics of the earlier school of 1810, for the course was 
practically reduced to two years, and the major part of the 
instruction was given at the university. Four years later 
under the new government, its old name was restored, to be 
changed in 1845 to its present official title. Higher Normal 
School. 

Shortly after the advent of the -July Monarchy in 1830, 
the school was thoroughly reorganized and soon assumed 

Assumes a ^^^ general type form that existed prior to 

Permanent 1903. The length of the regular course was 

°""' fixed at three years ; the courses of the 

literary and scientific sections were distinct from the outset ; 

the master's examination came ordinarily at the conclusion 

1 Ordonnance du Roi, Sept. 6, 1822. Recueil de lois et rtglemcns, VII., p. 205. 

2 Arr&U, Sept. 5, 1826, Recueil de lois et Hglemens, VIII., p. 79, 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 351 

of the first year's work, although the student was allowed 
until the end of the second year in which to pass it ; the 
third year constituted a special preparation for the par- 
ticular agregation the student had in mind together with a 
kind of practical work. Since 1828 there had been four 
orders of agregation: (1) letters; (2) philosophy; (3) 
grammar ; and (4) sciences. The agregation in history was 
added at this time, and two years later the science agrega- 
tion was resolved into the mathematics and the physics- 
natural science divisions. After the reform of 1830, when 
the school once more became independent, its relations with 
the faculties became more and more attenuated, particularly 
as regards the letters section, although this transition took 
place more slowly in the case of the scientific students, 
largely on account of the inadequate opportunities at the 
school for instriiction of that character. A noteworthy 
innovation was introduced in the spring of 1839.^ The 
"practical work" of 1830 became a reality, and the third- 
year students were sent out into the lycees for six or eight 
weeks of contact with real school conditions. How much 
actual teaching they did, we have no means of knowing, 
but the same order of the Council authorized them to act as 
substitutes for the regular teachers who were detached for 
other service during the period of the general prize compe- 
titions. Another innovation that followed a few years 
later was the beginning of modern language instruction, 
a chair of German being established in 1841 and one in 
English in 1846. The reactionary period about the middle 
of the nineteenth century, marked by the passage of the 
odious Falloux Law, was fraught with significant modifica- 
tions in the regime of the normal school. Much of the 
ground gained since 1830 was rapidly lost. The change of 
ministry in 1856, however, brought a turn for the better. 
Things gradually resumed their former shape, so that with 
the restoration of the agregation in philosophy in 1863 (the 
decree of 1852 had reduced the number of agregations to 

1 ArrU6, Aug. 14, 1838, Bulletin universitaire, 1838, p. 353. 



352 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

two, one for letters and the other for science) most of the 
old conditions were re-established. In 1869 the passage of 
the master's examination became a definite requirement for 
the end of the first year, and at the same time the normal 
graduates were relieved of their previous requirement of the 
three-year teaching period before being eligible to compete 
for the agregation. This last examination was thrown open 
to them immediately upon completing their course at 
the school. From this period until the reorganization in 
1903 the school was in a state of relatively stable equi- 
librium. The rigorous discipline was gradually modified, 
and the regime of the school became comparatively liberal. 

In the meantime the Higher Normal School had come 
to occupy a unique position in the educational world. 

Germany was definitely training secondary 
E^t'orm teachers, but training them professionally, at 

least, in a few selected Gymnasien, while 
England and the United States were doing little or nothing 
of a similar nature, at least nothing worthy to be ranked 
with the efforts of Germany and France. Here, then, was a 
secondary normal school that combined within its own walls 
the high specialized academic training of the German 
universities with the subsequent purely professional training. 
To a large extent, however, it was paralleliug the work 
of the Sor bonne, although it was handling a smaller and 
more select class of students. >' Its courses prepared for the 
master's degree, the university courses prepared for the 
master's degree ; the normal school prepared for the agrega- 
tion examinations, the university did likewise. Under the 
circumstances it is hardly surprising that the Parliament 
began to question the necessity of continuing an institution 
that was costing the State more than half a million francs per 
year.^ This parallelism had not been of long standing, be- 
cause for many years the normal school had borne the brunt 
of the burden of preparing young men for the master's degree 
and for the agregation, but from the period of the university 

1 Cf. Happort du budget, 1903, p. 82. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 353 

reform of the early eighties, especially since the two score 
yearly graduates of the school were no longer sufficient 
to supply the needs of the rapidly expanding system 
of secondary education, all this had begun to change. The 
opportunities at the Sorbonne widened ; courses were estab- 
lished there which prepared directly for the examinations 
for the master's degrees and the agregations ; the university 
students often competed successfully against the normal 
students, so much so that in 1901 the former won thirty- 
nine of the eighty agregations as against only twent3^-two 
for the latter,! whereas when the preparation of these same 
students began three years before that time the most 
promising had been appointed to the normal school, while 
many of their unsuccessful rivals had enrolled in the 
university courses. In the interim changes had naturally 
taken place, so that at the time of the agregation examina- 
tion the conditions were somewhat reversed. Even then the 
normal students won out, as they always do, in the per cent 
of successful candidates. For some years previous there had 
been a decided difference of opinion in the teaching ranks 
themselves as to the efficacy of professional training. 
Indeed no less distinguished a person than Fustel de 
Coulanges himself, the director of the normal school from 
1880 to 1883, had declared: "It is useless to learn to 
teach." The testimony of his successor, the late director of 
the school before the Eibot Commission in 1899, reflected a 
somewhat similar feeling, although M. Perrot couched his 
conviction in more veiled terms.^ In view of such expres- 
sions on the part of its directors, it is not surprising that 
the normal school was giving itself almost exclusively over 
to purely academic culture, the professional training having 
become practically insignificant. The six or eight weeks 
of lyc^e experience of 1838 had long since been reduced to a 
paltry two weeks, and even this was most superficially done. 

1 Lanson, La reorganisation de I'ecole normale, in Revue de Paris, Dec. 1, 
1903, p. 625. 

2 Enquete sur V enseicjnement secondaire, I., p. 140. 

23 



354 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The student ordinarily selected one of his former teachers, 
who perhaps might be quite incompetent to direct a 
beginner. Some of this work was undoubtedly very 
skilfully administered, while on the other hand some of the 
teachers started the normal student in his task and then 
took advantage of his presence to enjoy a vacation for the 
rest of the fortnight, merely returning in time to gather 
a little material for a report to the head master on the 
character of the neophyte's efforts. The criticism against 
this generally recognized lack of real professional training 
was crystallized in one of the conclusions of the Eibot 
Commission as reported to and adopted by the Chamber 
of Deputies in 1902. " The higher normal school will be 
organized and directed in such manner as to be not only 
a school for advanced study but a veritable pedagogical 
institution." ^ The internal modification of the courses of 
instruction for the year 1902-1903 ^ came too late to 
save the identity of the school. The presidential decree 
of November, 1903, fused it into the University of Paris, 
thereby putting an end to a rivalry that was rapidly be- 
coming more and more acute and that boded no good for 
academic harmony in the secondary teaching profession. 

By the terms of this decree, the normal school was made 
an integral part of the university, subject to the authority of 
the vice-rector, although still retaining its own 
"^Scliool T'^^ independent budget. Its director and assistant 
Professional director, oue of whom must be a letters man 
^Univei'sity ^ and the other a science man, were given seats 
in the corresponding faculties of the vmiversity. 
This amalgamation with the university and the strength- 
ening of the professional side of the work was not so much an 
innovation as a return to the original plans of 1795 and 1808, 
from which the school had long since widely departed. The 
reform was less significant for the science students than for 

1 EnquHc sur V enseigncment sccondairc, VI., p. 81, paragraph 21. 

2 See Extrnct from a report by M. Pf.rrot to tlie Minister of Public In- 
struction, in Bcvuc internationcde dc V enseigncment, 1902, II., pp. 516-523. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 355 

the letters men, for the former had long followed courses at 
the Sorbonne, the work at the school being rather more 
complementary, as it is to-day. The immediate most apparent 
effects were the sudden increase in the number of students, 
thirty-two for letters and twenty for science as against 
twenty and thirteen respectively in previous years, and the 
removal of the greater part of the instruction from the 
school itself to the lecture rooms of the university. The 
latter has since given occasion for the appellation " the col- 
lege " and even " the hotel " of the scholars of the university. 
The former is certainly the more suggestive title as far 
as Anglo-Saxon readers are concerned, for the present organ- 
ization corresponds fairly well to the external organization of 
the English college. Unfortunately there is room at the 
school for only one hundred and five students, the others who 
are forced to live outside receiving an allowance from the 
State of twelve hundred francs per year, the estimated cost of 
board and lodging within the school. The first-year men are 
given the choice in the order of rating at the admission ex- 
amination between living at the school and living outside, 
that is, until all the vacancies are filled. Those toward the 
bottom of the list thus have no choice in the matter. 

Admission to the school is solely by competitive exam- 
ination, the number of places being determined each year by 
the Minister of Public Instruction. This num- 
ber has been the same for the last two years, tlie^school^ 
thirty-five for letters and twenty-two for 
science.^ The examination, divided as ordinarily into 
the written and the oral part, is identical with the scholar- 
ship competition for the master's degree. As commonly 
happens, the written examinations are held simultaneously in 
each of the academy seats of the country, but the successful 
candidates are obliged to come to Paris for the oral test. 
The first on the list are appointed to the normal school, the 
next in order receiving scholarship appointments during 
their year of study for the master's degree. The scholarships 

1 Bull, adm., 1908, 1., p. 319. 



356 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

may be whole, three quarters, or half, on the basis of twelve 
hundred francs, the amount of award in each case depending 
upon the financial standing of the candidate's family. A can- 
didate must be not less than eighteen nor more than twenty- 
four years of age and must hold the bachelor's degree. As a 
matter of fact, so keen is the competition for appointment 
that in practice considerably more than this degree is re- 
quired. Certain lyc^es have special graduate classes, so to 
speak, that fit expressly for this examination. For the letters 
section this is known as the higher rhetoric form, a name 
derived from the former appellation of the present first form ; 
in the science section it is called the special mathematics form. 
The students remain in these forms one, two, and sometimes 
three and even four years, ^ for it is the exception for one to 
be successful after only one year in these special classes. 
Formerly it was not at all unusual for prospective normal 
school candidates to pass the master's examination during 
this period of preparation so that they had a considerable ad- 
vantage over their comrades at the very outset of the school 
course. Under the present regime and with the new pro- 
gram of the master's examination that went into effect in 
July, 1908, this is hardly likely to continue. 

For the letters section the written examination includes 
French, translations from and into Latin, philosophy, history, 

and one of the three following : a Greek trans- 
Wntten lation, a paper in a modern language (English, 

German, Italian, Spanish, Eussian, or Arabic), 
and a paper in mathematics and physics. The three papers in 
Latin and Greek are each allowed four hours, the others six 
hours apiece. The science candidates have a choice between 
two series of papers, — the examinations in mathematics (based 
upon a special program, including algebra, analytic geom- 
etry, vector analysis, something of the calculus, and mechan- 
ics), French, and modern languages (two translations chosen 
from Latin, English, and German), with four hours for the 

1 See article by a former normal student in the Revue internationale de 
Venseignement, 1907, I., pp. 230-240. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 357 

first, three for the second, and two for the third, being com- 
mon to both series. In addition, one series has a second 
paper on mathematics and one on physics, both six-hour tests 
and both based upon the topics of the regular lycde course ; 
while the other series has papers on physics, chemistry, and 
natural sciences, drawn from a special program. The phys- 
ics lasts six hours, the chemistry and natural science four 
hours each. The relative values of studies are still further 
provided for in the system of coefficients to which reference 
has already been made.^ In the written exammation in let- 
ters each Latin paper is valued at two, and each of the others 
at three ; in the science the coefficients in one series vary 
from one for the French essay to seven for the physics, and 
in the other from one for the French essay to five for the 
physics. In any case these written examinations constitute 
a long and exhausting test covering a total duration of from 
twenty-one to thirty -two hours. 

Only those who pass the written examinations are admitted 
to the oral examinations at Paris. Each candidate further- 
more covenants to reimburse the State for the amount of his 
scholarship in case through any fault of his own he fails to 
serve ten years in the service of public instruction. The oral 
examination in letters includes a series common to all, con- 
sisting of French, Latin, philosophy, modern history, and a 
modern language (this latter must be different from the one 
chosen for the written), and a series following along the lines 
of the three Latin sections of the baccalaureate. The exami- 
nation for the Latin-Greek section covers Greek and the 
history of Greece and Eome ; that for the Latin-modern lan- 
guage includes the same ancient history, together with the 
modern language submitted for the written examination ; 
that for the Latin-science bears upon natural science and 
physics. For the science students the oral examination 
comprises : mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and either 
{a) additional mathematics or (6) natural science. In the 
letters examination the coefficients for history and physics 

1 Cf. sujpra, p. 340. 



358 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

are one, and for each of the other subjects two ; while in the 
science examination they vary in one group from one for 
the additional mathematics to eight for the ordinary mathe- 
matics, and in the other from three for the chemistry to five 
for the physics. 

The scholarships for the master's degree^ in letters, phi- 
losophy, or history are granted for one year ; in modern lan- 
guages and in science for two years, although 
of*the in the latter case it is often possible to obtain 

Scholarship an extension for a third year. At the expira- 
tion of this scholarship period the students that 
gain the master's degree are granted, without further exami- 
nation, a scholarship for the diploma of higher studies ^ 
(diplome d'etudes siiperieures). This varies in amount from 
fifteen hundred to six hundred francs, and likewise runs for 
a year. If the candidate passes this examination he receives 
a scholarship for the agregation'^ as before without further 
competition. This also is granted for a year, but may be 
renewed in the case of students who pass the written part 
but fail on the oral. These last two scholarships, for the 
diploma and the agregation, are sometimes granted to stu- 
dents holding the master's degree who did not enjoy a schol- 
arship for that first advanced degree. Under this system, 
once a young man succeeds in the competition for the mas- 
ter's scholarship, he is given every possible encouragement 
and all reasonable State support in order to enable him to 
continue his studies until he wins the agregation. Not every 
one reaches this goal, for the residuum becomes finer and 
finer as the coarser products are eliminated in the process. 
With only the master's degree, however, he is eligible for 
appointment in a college, and it is still possible for him to 

1 Aside from the normal students, it is ordinarily possible for these scholars 
to pursue their work in Paris or in any of the provincial universities that they 
may indicate. Of course the great majovitj' of them are enrolled at the Uni- 
versity of Paris. The whole system has given rise to considerable recrimina- 
tion on the part of the provincial institutions on the ground that the Sor- 
bonne is unduly favored. Most of these contentions are ill advised, although 
prompted by a pardonable pride in the local university. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 359 

pass the other two barriers. Every year men are succeeding 
in this. After two or three failures his chances of success 
become smaller and smaller, until finally he gives up the 
fight and resigns himself to his lot, never able to become a 
regular professor in a lycde, but still with the whole range of 
the college field before him, and with the possibility of reach- 
ing an acting professorship in a lyc^e. 

The successful candidates for the normal school seldom 
begin their course immediately. They almost invariably 
arrange to work off one of the two years of 
military service now required of all able-bodied Military 
male citizens. Formerly those preparing for 
certain professional careers were compelled to serve only a 
single year in the army in place of the three years ordinarily 
demanded, but since the reduction of the service to two years 
in 1904 this amount has been rigorously exacted from all. 
The first year the normal student spends as an ordinary sol- 
dier in the ranks. During that time, in common with his 
fellows from the military and the polytechnic schools, he 
receives additional instruction destined to prepare him to 
become an officer. He has a special examination to pass 
at tlie end of this year. Throughout his three years at the 
school this same technical military instruction is carried on 
one hour a week, supplemented by numerous excursions into 
the country on Sundays in summer for topographical and 
other field work of a practical nature. Then at the end of 
the course there is another examination along lines similar 
to the former one. Those who are successful here receive 
officers' appointments. Thus, with their standing as reserve 
officers, this second year of service is considerably more 
agreeable than it would otherwise be. The arrangement, 
however, has been made not so much from the point of view 
of the normal students as from that of the actual needs of 
the service. 

With their first year of military service behind them, the 
students prepare for the real work of the school ; barring 
accidents, three years of delightful association in an Intel- 



360 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

lectual environment, such an experience as no other institu- 
tion in France affords. Here, under the present liberal regime, 

the students are treated like young men capa- 
School. ^^^ ^^ looking out for themselves, a freedom 

that stands out in striking contrast to the 
system of repression they have just passed through in the 
lycdes. Twenty-five years ago at the normal school every- 
thing was conducted under the strictest military regime. 
Long after the old conditions had changed, however, the 
former regulations were still officially in force, only to be 
honored more in the breach than in the observance. Since 
the advent of the present administration, the students are no 
longer required to obtain permission in order to go outside 
the school precincts. The gates are locked at one o'clock 
in the morning and after that hour the belated theatre-goer 
has the alternative of climbing the high iron fence or of 
spending the night outside. 

Save for the opportunity of eating and sleeping at the 
school, the rights and privileges of the internes are in no 
respect different from those of the externes. The latter may 
even arrange to take their meals in the common hall if they 
so desire, and thus derive practically all the advantages of 
the life in common at the school, which is really its salient 
characteristic. The spirit of comradeship is further fostered 
by a system of study rooms called in the school vernacular 
" tournes." Each of these holds from two to five fellows, 
drawn together by common interests or congenial natures, 
each one with his own study table, books, and easy-chair. 
The alcohol lamp with its accompany hig row of cups and 
saucers half hidden by a curtain are strongly suggestive of 
one's own college days. The couch in the corner, the pic- 
tures and plaster casts upon the walls still further enhance 
the illusion, so that if some genie were suddenly to whisk an 
American into one of these rooms, he would readily believe 
himself in one of his own college dormitories. The sleeping 
accommodations are quite apart, for the students sleep in the 
traditional fashion that still prevails in the lyc^es already 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 361 

described. The tournes of each class are grouped together, 
the rooms being assigned by lot at the beginning of the year. 
Those of the third-year men, at the top of the building, far- 
thest removed from the noise of the street, go by the familiar 
title of the " palace of the cubes." The first-year student is 
a " conscript," the second-year a " square " (that is, the 
second power), and the third-year a "cube" (that is, the 
third power), while the surveillant, although from no spirit 
of animosity, is commonly known as the "caiman." With 
three years of such familiar association, it is small wonder 
that the normal students are bound together by an esprit 
de corps that grows even stronger with the gathering years. 
Many of the graduates feared that the recent reform would 
tend to weaken these old bonds, but except for widening the 
circle a little, their fears do not seem to have been realized. 

Aside from the personal contact with his fellows and with 
his professors, one of the highest-prized privileges of a nor- 
mal student is his library opportunities. He has within his 
reach a magnificent collection of some 200,000 books among 
which he can browse to his heart's desire. In the morning 
it is reserved for the professors and the former students, but 
all the afternoon it is open for the almost unrestricted use of 
the student body. Each one seeks out his own book on the 
shelves, and thus gains the inspiration that only such contact 
with books can give. 

vChe work of the first year reproduces exactly that which is 
required from the ordinary possessors of the master's scholar- 
ships, save that those actually enrolled in the 
school enjoy the added distinction and privilege "^^y ^^^^^ 
that always attach to the normal school stu- 
dents. They are required to pass the master's examination 
at the end of the first year, and to gain the diploma at the 
end of the second. Failure at either point means exclusion 
from the school just as a similar failure in the case of the 
outside students working for the same degree entails dis- 
continuance of the scholarship. ^^In France the State is gen- 
erous with its scholarships, but it bestows them from no 



362 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 









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THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 363 

eleemosynary motive, vtt grants them freely, but it demands 
success from its beneficiaries, and it exacts a return in intel- 
lectual service after the academic goals have been reached. 
The first year's work, then, is determined entirely by the re- 
quhements for the master's degree. The normal students 
live at the school, but have all their courses at the university. 
Until the passing of the baccalaureate all their work had 
been more or less general. -^/To be sure, at the beginning 
of the sixth form, the boy had chosen for or against Latin ; 
again, on completing the first cycle, he had another decision 
to make, but all the pupils had had mathematics, and all had 
had some other science work. Now, as the preparation for 
the master's degree begins in earnest, the scope begins to 
narrow still more. Not only have the letters men dropped 
all the scientific subjects, but they are grouped in one of the 
four subdivisions : philosophy, history and geography, classic 
languages and literatures, and modern languages and litera- 
tures. Latin and at least one modern language in addition 
to the student's special interest are required of all these 
candidates. The importance still attached to the Latin is 
shown by the fact that in the philosophy, in the history and 
the geography, and in the modern language series, the candi- 
dates must receive a mark of at least eight on a scale of 
twenty in the Latin translation in order to be admitted to the 
oral examinations, whereas in the other subjects this minimum 
is regularly fixed at five, furthermore an average of half the 
maximum at the written examination is required of all. 

These examinations, both written and oral, are held in 
Paris and in the other university centers in July and in 
November. The program for the letters students on the 
preceding page will give a clearer idea of the scope of the 
examination and its general character. 

The lists of authors upon which most of the examinations 
in letters are based are drawn up by each faculty every two 
years.^ 

1 For the philosophy series at the University of Paris, 1908-1909, the 
English authors are: Berkeley, Treatise on the principles of human knowledge; 



364 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The master of science degree is still delivered under the 
regulations of 1896, which have meanwhile been only 

slightly modified. Although the subjects for 
Scie^cfSegree. ^^ich this degree is granted are numerous, 

varying considerably in the different universi- 
ties, for teaching purposes they fall into three general 
groups, according to the subjects of instruction in the sec- 
ondary schools: (1) differential and integral calculus, ra- 
tional mechanics, and either general physics, or another 
mathematical subject; (2) general physics, general chemistry, 
and either mineralogy or one of a series of general science 
subjects; (3) zoology or general physiology, botany, and 
geology. The examinations are conducted in the same 
general way as those for letters, except that after the written 
examination is inserted a practical test which must be 
passed in order to be admitted to the oral. 

The second year's work of the normal student is likewise 
determined by conditions entirely outside the school. This 

is the period during which he acquires his so- 
'^'^yfaT""*^ called " scientific initiation," of which he gives 

evidence in the examination for the diploma 
of higher study at the end of the year. There is a beginning 
of pure pedagogy, however, at the normal school, represented 
by a one hour a week lecture course on the " Origin, develop- 
ment, and present situation of secondary education in 
France," given by M. Durkheim, professor of education at 
the University of Paris. The few weeks between December 
and Easter do not allow a very thorough treatment of such 
an extensive subject, but the course marks a phase of theo- 
retical instruction that was entirely lacking in the French 
secondary teacher's preparation imtil the recent organization 
of the normal school. After Easter in 1907-1908, the course 

and Hume, Treatise on human nature, I., pt. III. For the modern language 
series the English authors are: Shakespeare, Othello; Milton, Comus; 
Johnson, Lives of the English jwcts (Dryden, Swift); Sheridan, The critic; 
Wordsworth, The Excursion, liook I.; Eliot, Scenes from clerical life ; 
Tennyson, Selections (Rowe and Webb); Hawthorne, The house of the 
seven gables. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 365 

was continued by a series of seven lectures on more special 
topics by men particularly well qualified to handle the sub- 
jects discussed. The questions under consideration were: 
" The relation between pedagogy and psychology " ; " The 
role of attention in education " ; two lectures on school 
hygiene ; two on the organization of public instruction in 
general and on the secondary education of boys in particular ; 
and one on cooperation among secondary teachers. The 
chief weakness about this theoretical work is that as yet the 
official regulations content themselves merely with requiring 
attendance upon these lectures. In view of the strenuous 
nature of the work actually required for the examinations, 
especially where so much is controlled by examinations as 
in France, it would be safe to assume that the students do 
not devote much consideration to the questions outside the 
lecture room. Certainly the student attitude in this course 
differs markedly from what one finds in the other work at 
the school. 

The rest of this second year's work is made up of a 
number of university courses chosen by the individual stu- 
dent in accordance with his special needs. He 
is now actually started on the preparation for trPj^ ^f "^I 
the agregation, but he must gain his diploma 
at the end of the year. This diploma which has proved its 
worth in the history department since 1895, but has been 
required in the other departments of letters and science for 
only five years, follows the same gro;iiping as already out- 
lined for the master's examination, ^he year's work intro- 
duces the students to the use of a scientific method, thereby 
assuring a higher standard of scholarship in the future 
teachers than was guaranteed by the simple master's degree, 
and at the same time allowing the agregation jury to con- 
centrate the attention upon the candidate's capabilities from 
the teaching point of view. ^ In the three science groups the 
diploma is based upon two requirements : (1) an original 
piece of scientific work written under the general supervision 
of a university professor, and (2) an oral examination on this 



3G6 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

same work, together with certain topics taken from the 
general field, announced three months in advance. In letters 
the philosophy examination follows the same method of pro- 
cedure.^ In classics three texts, Greek, Latin, and French, 
are selected for extended study ; a question suggested by 
one of these forms the basis of a written memoir ; a passage 
from each text is assigned at the oral examination for inter- 
pretation ; and finally philology, paleography, comparative 
grammar, or some other similar limited field of literary study 
selected by the candidate provides the subject matter for a 
searching questioning. In modern languages, besides the 
written memoir, its defence, and the interpretation of the 
author previously chosen by the student, there is also a 
grammatical and literary interpretation of a passage from an 
author of the Middle Ages or the Kenaissance period. The 
student has ample time in which to prepare for this, for, as 
happens in other similar cases, he makes his own choice of 
author, subject of course to faculty approval. In history or 
geography the diploma has a fourfold basis : (1) the memoir 
and its discussion ; (2) discussion of a question in history 
and one in geography, assigned by the faculty three months 
in advance and selected from other fields than the one 
treated in the written paper ; (3) criticism of an historical 
or geographical text chosen by the candidate with the 
approval of the faculty ; and (4) a series of questions on 
archeology, epigraphy, paleography, diplomacy, bibliography, 
or general geography, the choice of the field being left to the 
candidate. The examinations in history and geography are 
by far the most comprehensive and searching, a condition 
probably due in no small measure to modifications in accord- 
ance with lengthening experience. It must be somewhat 
awe-inspiring for the candidates, as I saw them summoned 
before a jury of university professors, each one of whom was 
distinguished in some particular field of investigation, and 

1 The record of thesis subjects, texts for explanation, and marks for the 
diploma in philosophy in ] 908, Ajipendix L, will give a clearer idea of the 
character of this particular examination. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 367 

plied with questions by these same specialists. Occasionally 
a candidate appears who stands his ground valiantly or re- 
treats in good order before superior forces. The difficulty of 
the ordeal varies greatly in the different subjects, and de- 
pends still more upon the personal characteristics of the 
individual men. In any case it is no easy task for the 
student. 

VThe third year is the final preparation for the agregation, 
the period ^hich a former Minister of Public Instruction 
was pleased to call the period of " general cul- 
tiire within a definite field of knowledge," but Year"^ 
«>/^hich is rather devoted to widening and deep- 
ening the knowledge of the subjects already covered several 
times before, constantly keeping in mind the fact that these 
young men are planning to teach these same branches. No 
one student has many subjects, for he confines himself 
exclusively to his professional work. Part of the time is 
devoted to lectures by the professors, but the major part is 
taken up with lessons given by the pupils themselves. 

During this year there is still some general class work at 
the Sorbonne, but nearly all the lessons by the students are 
given at the normal school itself. These latter, 
which are in reality little more than lectures. Lessons 
form a decidedly artificial kind of practice 
teaching. They unquestionably give the student good train- 
ing in organizing and presenting his material, but a most 
essential factor in the teaching process, somebody to teach, is 
quite lacking. To be sure, the lectures are delivered before 
the professor and the student's classmates, but this audience 
is hardly comparable to a class of ten to fifty boys in a 
secondary school. The element of discipline is entirely 
lacking, while the apperceptive bases of the two groups of 
individuals are widely different. 'Nevertheless this form of 
practice is not so unlike their subsequent teaching as one 
might suppose on first consideration, for it will be remem- 
bered that the instruction in the secondary schools, especially 
in the upper classes, follows essentially the lecture method. 



368 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

As practice in the selection, organizal^ion, and presentation of 
material, however, it is admirable. "' The following are typi- 
cal of the subjects actually treated in these student lessons : 
" The results of the crusades ; " " An elementary lesson in 
vaporization ; " " The political situation in Egypt under the 
Ptolemie^ ; " " The metamorphosis of insects " (for a sixth 
form). ''As far as possible the students strive to suit their 
work to the comprehension of a given age of pupils, but 
inasmuch as personal experience of several years back con- 
stitutes almost the sole basis for determining this adaptation, 
they often go wide of the mark. In physics two students 
work together, one as teacher, and the other as laboratory 
assistant, so that the selection and preparation of the mate- 
rial represents a kind of joint product. '^The student has a 
regular lyc^e teaching period of fifty or sixty minutes for the 
presentation of the material. At the close his classmates 
are ordinarily called upon to criticise the lesson. Finally 
the teacher gives his criticism, first in the form of general 
appreciation of the work as a whole, and later )vith detailed 
suggestions as to the handling of the subject.'^ In the main 
the lessons that I heard were good, although the students 
generally shared the faults of most young teachers : too 
much material, with consequently too rapid transitions and a 
failure to drive things home ; maladaptation of material and 
language to the comprehension of young pupils ; neglect of 
the relative values of material. Each student ordinarily has 
three such lessons in the course of the year in each subject 
or large phase of a subject represented in his agrcgation, al- 
though this number may be increased or diminished according 
to the size of the class and the pleasure of the instructor. 
Thus the history student, for example, has three lessons in 
ancient history, three in mediaeval history, three in modern 
history, and three in geography, making twelve in all ; the 
natural science student likewise has twelve, four in each of 
his three subjects, zoology, botany, and geology. 

The theoretical preparation in the second year has its 
counterpart in the following year, although this theoretical 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 369 

character becomes less and less pronounced until it finally 
gives way entirely to the practice teaching. Following his 
usual custom, M. Liard, the Vice-rector of the 
University of Paris, opened this course in 1907- Theoretical 

"^ ' ^ Instruction. 

1908. In his three lectures M. Liard explained 
the significance of the new lyc^e program with its ad- 
justments, its purposes, and its aims, and called the at- 
tention of these prospective teachers to a few vital funda- 
mental principles of method and management. All this 
came with added force because founded upon the speaker's 
long and successful experience both as a teacher and as an 
administrative officer. In fact, much of the awakened inter- 
est in this purely pedagogical preparation is due to the 
initiative and the support of the vice-rector. In close touch 
with the real situation in the schools, with an open mind for 
possible reforms, and with the power and the courage to 
effect them, M. Liard is proving himself a worthy successor 
to the late M. Grdard. "{Following these general lectures 
required of all candidates for the agregation, whether norma- 
liens or university men, the students are separated into a 
series of parallel courses in accordance with their particular 
interests : letters, grammar, philosophy, history and geogra- 
phy, modern languages, mathematics, physics and chemistry, 
and natural science. These lectures, three or four in num- 
ber in each series, given largely by the regular university 
professors, are essentially special method courses that lead 
up directly to the " professional apprenticeship " or practice 
teaching. With the completion of the series of lectures, 
however, the responsibility of these men ceases, w 

The practice teaching is nowadays conducted much more 
seriously than before the recent reform. Under the present 
«onditions each candidate for the agregation} 
whether a normal school student or one work- ^F^^*?*^^® 

. . leaching. 

ing independently, is required to spend at least 

three weeks in a lyc^e. The students are assigned in groups 

1 Professors in the colleges and acting professors in the lycees are exempt 
from this requirement. 

24 



370 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

of two or three to various professors in the Paris schools. 
This time means are taken to assure the competency of the 
teachers for this student guidance, for the men are selected 
by the vice-rector for this particular purpose. <^s far as this 
practice work is concerned the students are entirely in the 
hands of the lyc^e teachers ; no attempt has been made to 
assure uniformity of treatment thereafter. The professors 
take these young men in hand, go over the work with them, 
introduce them to the general mechanism of class-room 
conduct, and finally entrust their classes to them. One can 
readily see that when the observation and the other prelimi- 
nary work have been done, the amount of time left for actual 
teaching cannot be very extensive, but at least it is done 
under competent supervision. In the modern languages, 
the practice teaching is considerably more extensive, for it 
covers approximately two thhds of the academic year.^ The 
lyc^e professors to whom these students are sent receive 
four hundred francs per year extra for this work. On the 
strength of the reports from the teachers on the result of 
this teaching, together with the records of their theoretical 
preparation, the vice-rector issues the probation certificate 
required for admission to candidacy for the agrcgation. In 
suggesting to one of the normal school professors the possi- 
bility of a weakness in the system from the fact that there 
was no bond of connection between the men in charge of 
the students at the school and the practice teaching, he 
replied : " But these secondary teachers are our colleagues, 
and are equally competent to look after the students." The 
outsider is inclined to attribute the latter part of the state- 
ment to the natural modesty of the speaker. There is an 
admitted defect, however, in the fact that no critical report 
of the teaching ever reaches the examining jury for the 
agregation. The examination is still primarily a test of 
knowledge,"^ although the technique of the profession is 
gradually obtaining recognition. 

There is another recent innovation in the pedagogical 

1 III 1907-8, from Jaimaiy 8 to May 31. 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 371 

preparation of the candidates for the agregation. Each one 
is assigned to a particular primary school to visit it and 
acquire some general notion of its functioning. 
This would seem almost too trivial to men- Primary 
tion were it not that to the large majority of Schools, 
these students a public primary school is an unknown land, 
and for more than one of them this is likely to be the only 
time in their lives when they will have any personal con- 
tact with the lower order of schools. In view of the wide 
separation between the teaching corps of these two great 
divisions of State schools, even such a simple requirement 
as this may be a means toward establishing a more sympa- 
thetic understanding among the members of the teaching 
profession. 

After all this preliminary work has been disposed of 
comes the final test, the examination for the agregation. 
There are eight orders of the agreges : in phi- m, ^ , • 

-. IT* T Till J.1I6 JlQTCQClUlOlX'm 

losophy, history and geography, letters, gram- 
mar, modern languages, mathematics, physical sciences, 
natural sciences. * The agregation in grammar still exists in 
spite of various determined efforts to abolish it. In fact 
there is little reason other than tradition for retaining it, 
for it covers nearly the same ground as the agregation in 
letters, and even so late as the year before the examination 
the candidates for the two agregations pass together through 
the test for the diploma for higher study in the classics. 
Each examination has its own Latin theme, its Greek theme, 
its Latin translation, with four hours for each, its French 
essay, its text interpretations in Latin, Greek, and French. 
The Greek translation of the letters examination is replaced 
by the grammatical study of Latin, Greek, and French texts 
for the grammar candidates. In the oral examination in- 
stead of the lecture on a literary subject, demanded of the 
letters men, the grammarians have additional grammatical 
commentaries to make on the language texts submitted for 
interpretation. The same authors are required of each ; the 
general scope of the work is practically the same; each 



372 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

teaches Latin, Greek, and French, the only difference being 
that the agregcs in letters teach in the highest forms, wliile 
the agreges in grammar teach from the sixth to the first 
form inclusive. The present distinction harks back to the 
period when grammatical instruction was strongly differen- 
tiated from philosophy. 

Under the revised program, holders of the master's degree 
in science are on the same footing with those in let- 
ters for the agrSgation in philosophy, but the diploma in 
philosophy is required of all. The other agregations gener- 
ally require both the master's degree and the diploma in 
their particular fields before admitting to candidacy. The 
examinations in the various subjects consist of from two to 
five written papers each (save for the exceptions noted above 
in letters and grammar, together with the theme and the 
translation in the modern languages) of a duration of seven 
hours, texts to interpret and comment upon, and one or two 
" lessons " similar to those already described at the normal 
school. Formerly the candidate was allowed twenty-four 
hours in which to prepare this lesson, but the new regime 
has reduced the time to four hours for each of the science 
subjects, five hours for the philosophy, the letters, and each of 
the two lessons in modern languages, and six hours for each 
of the three in history and geography. In the preparation 
of these lessons, the books, instruments, and material asked 
for by the candidate are as far as possible placed at his dis- 
position, thus largely reproducing the conditions of actual 
teaching, save that he is deprived of all personal contact 
with the outside world, and that he has to work under high 
pressure. The oral test in physics and chemistry includes 
the analysis of a salt, setting up apparatus, and a demon- 
stration lesson in physics and one in chemistry. For the 
preparation of the two latter, the services of a laboratory 
assistant are placed at the candidate's disposal. Even under 
the most favorable conditions it is a serious test that de- 
mands a great expenditure of nervous energy. In the his- 
tory and geography examination, probably the hardest of all, 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 373 

there are four written papers of seven hours each (one on 
each of the great divisions of history, and one on geography), 
and three lessons of three quarters of an hour, with six 
hours allowed for preparation, the whole giving a total of 
more than forty-six hours. 

^■^MVhen once a man has succeeded in this competition, the 
real goal of the teaching profession in France, he is in a way 
a charge upon the government, and it obligates 
itself to provide him with a living as long as o/'thriarJfTs 
he is physically and mentally capable of ren- 
dering it adequate service. It must find an appointment for 
him in some lyc^e if he so requests. Failure so to do does 
not relieve the State of the responsibility for his salary, 
which, it will be remembered, varies according to certain 
classes and not according to particular institutions. Further- 
more, in whatever teaching position he may be placed, he is 
entitled to an extra remuneration of five hundred francs per 
year just because he is an agrSge. In view of this addi- 
tional salary, the tenure of office, and the absolute assurance 
of appointment, together with the great academic honor that 
always attaches to these appointments, it is no wonder that 
in some respects it is quite as high a distinction as the 
doctor's degree. 

There are two other general classes of certificates for sec- 
ondary teaching : the certificates of competency for modern 
language teaching, and for teaching in the ele- 
mentary classes of the secondary schools, both ^f Competency : 
obtained by competitive examination, wherein Modern 
the number of places is fixed from year to year TeacMn?-^ 
by the Minister, according to the needs of the 
service. The first of these, common to both men and 
women, is about on a par academically with the master's 
degree. It answers every purpose of this degree as far as 
eligibility for the diploma and the agregation is concerned. 
The men, however, usually prefer to take the master's degree, 
otherwise they shut themselves off from a possible doctorate 
later on. This test provides practically all the modern 



374 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

language teachers ifr the girls' secondary schools and the 
boys' colleges, andiSften ekes out the supply of agreges in 
the boys' lyc^es. Besides a preliminary eliminatory test of 
a French essay, there are the usual written and oral exami- 
nations of theme, translation, grammatical commentary, and 
interpretation of text. Besides a sight theme and a sight 
translation based upon the current idiomatic language use, 
there is also a special mark given for pronunciation. Great 
stress is laid upon the ability to speak the language. In 
fact, before registering at the university for the regulation 
courses, the prospective candidates almost always count on 
spending a year abroad. 

Every year at Paris is held a competitive examination for 
the certificate of proficiency for teaching in elementary 
classes of the secondary schools. These include 
Cksses!^^ only the eighth and seventh forms so that the 
needs each year are not very great. In 1908, 
there were fourteen men's appointments to be made, the regu- 
lar number for recent years. For eligibility here are re- 
quired the bachelor's degree, the higher diploma of the 
primary system with the full certificate, the certificate for 
teaching in the normal and the higher primary schools, or the 
girls' secondary diploma. The written examination includes 
a French essay, English or German (theme and translation 
with the aid of a dictionary entirely in the foreign language), 
history and geography, and science (arithmetic, algebra, ge- 
ometry, and either physics or natural science). The oral ex- 
amination covers reading and interpretation of a French text ; 
grammar, reading and translation with grammatical questions 
of English or German ; presentation of a lesson in history or 
geography ; a lesson in arithmetic, physics, or natural science ; 
and finally the treatment of some pedagogical question. 

The teachers of the preparatory classes are ordinarily 

drawn from the regular teaching force of the primary school 

Other system, delegated by the rector of the academy 

Teaching for work in secondary schools. In some cases, 

Appointments, j^ot^bly at Lille, a definite attempt is made to 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 375 

select for this work not only the strongest of the primary 
teachers, but those best capable of getting along without 
supervision, for once a teacher is placed in these elementary 
classes, he or she is practically safe from any expert super- 
vision. He is out of the jurisdiction of his natural head, the 
primary inspector, and the academy inspector who visits 
the lycde or college confines his attention almost entirely to 
the purely secondary classes. Even under the most favor- 
able conditions possible, then, even the good primary teacher 
is likely to deteriorate or at least is not likely to grow profes- 
sionally, for in these lower classes of the secondary school 
there is a lack of stimulus for further development. Al- 
though I have come across some excellent teachers in these 
lower grades, I must confess that on the whole I did not 
find the average so good as in the corresponding grades of 
the primary schools. Of course one must not forget that the 
aims of these two systems are quite distinct, that the work 
in the primary school must be complete in itself, while in 
the secondary school it is constantly looked upon as the 
preparation for the secondary work proper which is to fol- 
low. Yet this is to a large extent the very basis of the 
criticism, for too many teachers in these lower forms have 
imposed bodily upon their pupils the methods and processes 
that may succeed admirably with advanced classes. The 
instruction in drawing and gymnastics is given by men 
that hold special certificates for teaching their respective 
branches. 

It is worthy of remark that the agregation as well as the 
various certificates of proficiency and even the simple bacca- 
laureate are purely state distinctions. In no 
case is the sanction granted by the particular Sanctions. 
institution where the work is done. The ex- 
amining juries are appointed by the Minister, and the diploma 
comes from the State. 

Although there are no tuition charges for instruction beyond 
the bachelor's degree, there are certain fees for matricula- 
tion, registration, library, laboratory, examination, certificate, 



376 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

and diploma that amount to quite a respectable sum by the 
time the student is a full-fledged agrege. The bachelor's de- 
gree thus costs 140 francs : 40 francs for each examination, 
10 for each certificate of successful passage, 

° ' and 40 francs for the degree itself. The mas- 

ter's degree represents an expenditure of at least 205 francs: 
an annual library fee of 10 francs, 30 francs registration 
for each of the three trimesters in the academic year, and 
105 francs for examination, certificate, and diploma fees. By 
reason of laboratory charges and other expenses, the master's 
degree in science is even more expensive, amounting to 300 
francs for the physics, chemistry, and natural science candi- 
dates. For the diploma and the agregation examinations no 
fees are demanded, for it is a fundamental principle in France 
that no financial requirement shall exclude anybody other- 
wise qualified from participation in any state competition. 
The cost of preparation for the normal students and the 
scholarship holders is likewise nil, although the ordinary 
candidate has to pay the regular university fees indicated 
above. 

, . Thus the examination plays fully as large a part in the 

preparation of the young men for the teaching profession as 

it did in the case of the young women. •• Every- 

Teaching a thing proceeds in due, orderly fashion with fre- 

Profession. ^ j^ . •' 

quently recurrmg checks to test the quality 
of the residue. While it undoubtedly happens that some are 
thrown out in the course of the process who might have 
become good teachers, yet on the other hand the system 
renders it practically impossible for any unworthy candidate 
to glide through. " Some might like to see the technique 
of teaching occupying a relatively larger part in the pre- 
paratory process, yet one may rest assured that the secon- 
dary teacher who has passed through this training is a 
thorough master of his subject. He not only knows his 
subject matter, but his knowledge extends far beyond the 
periphery of what he will be cabled upon to present to his 
pupils in the secondary school. Indeed, as one of the pro- 



THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS 377 

fessors of the normal school told me, the agreges were as 
competent to give instruction in the universities as they were 
in the secondary schools. Once out in the schools, they 
teach their specialties and nothing more. The agregS in 
letters or in grammar teaches French, Latin, and Greek ; the 
agrege in history and geography teaches only these subjects. 
Under no conceivable conditions would either one of these 
men be called upon or even be allowed to teach a class in 
modern languages or mathematics. Individual preferences 
and individual convenience are subordinated to the good of 
the mas^, to the well being of the pupil, the school, and the 
State.'^ As M. Langlois wrote a few years ago : " It is only 
in England and America where individual liberty has been 
pushed to the point of charlatanism so that anybody at all 
can teach anything at all." ^ In France, teaching is a profes- 
sion and not a trade, a life work and not a stepping stone to 
some other career. "-The Frenchman takes it up seriously and 
is proud of his calling. It is small wonder, then, that the 
staff of the French secondary schools is a splendidly equipped 
and an efficient body of men. We may not agree with all 
their aims and their ideals, we may not subscribe to all their 
methods, but we cannot help recognizing their intellectual 
ability nor can we refrain from admiring them as effective 
instruments for accomplishing the work they have in hand. 

1 Langlois, La priparation professionelle cb I'enseignement secondaire, 
p. 101. 



CHAPTEK XVI 

SOME CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE SCHOOLS OF THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY 

The history of the French secondary schools presents three 
well marked periods : the first when they were integrally 

bound up in the university scheme of educa- 
^^UnresT ^^°^' dominated in succession by scholasticism, 

humanism, and the modifications superinduced 
by the Eenaissance, a period extending from the time of Abe- 
lard until the passing of the " old regime" ; the second span- 
ning the years from the French Eevolution until just past the 
dawn of the twentieth century, really a period of storm and 
stress, marked by the vain struggle of the Church fighting to 
retain its waning position of vantage and control, with science 
constantly striving to establish its right to rank with the older 
disciplines ; and we have but yesterday crossed the threshold 
of the new era, marked by the reorganization of the secondary 
school system in 1902. Science has won its battle, and new 
problems are unfolding themselves, emanating from the 
changed conditions that a new world is bringing forth. This 
reform of 1902 is France's solution for the problem of the 
educational imrest that has been growing more and more acute 
in the great nations of the world for the past few years, but 
it is yet too early to appreciate all this dispassionately. Dif- 
fering essentially from the German solution, time alone can 
determine which nation has solved the question the more 
sanely. Indeed, one is likely to find that both are right, 
that there is no one solution, but that, after all, each people 
must work out its own problems in its own way, culling what 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY 379 

suggestions it may from its neighbors' efforts. Everywhere 
there is a trend toward a closer integration of the schools and 
their work with the needs of everyday life. In Germany 
this is manifested in the lower school system by the rise of 
trade and vocational schools, both in the regular course and 
in the continuation school movement, while in the secondary 
field, we find the breaking away from the old classical Gym- 
nasiicm and the decided leaning toward those institutions 
that stand for the so-called Bealien. In the United States 
the same ferment is working, the " set " being most pronounced 
toward the development of industrial and agricultural instruc- 
tion, the narrower commercial and manual branches, which 
may be looked upon as the forerunners of this whole move- 
ment with us, having undergone a veritable renaissance so as 
almost to be unrecognizable. The necessity for all this change 
is due not so much to the fact that the school is growing away 
from life, as that life has grown away from the school. The 
school has remained stationary, a proper conservative force in 
the community, but the time has long passed since this con- 
servatism became obsoletism. We are now in the very midst 
of a frantic struggle to bring about a condition of equilibrium 
between the two. 

In France the extreme radical view is typified by the 
ideas of the late M. Demolins. Convinced that the superi- 
ority of the Anglo-Saxon race bore a direct re- 
lation to the basic principles of the national ^ ^^ schooi^^ 
education, he selected some of the salient 
phases of English school life, and attempted to impose them 
upon the French boy. The ^cole des Bodies and a few other 
similar institutions represent the embodiment of these no- 
tions. The motto on the escutcheon of the school, "well 
equipped for life," will suggest the fundamental conception 
upon which it was founded. Analogously, and at the same 
time not unfairly, one might suggest as a device for the pres- 
ent day lyc^es, " well equipped for examinations." M. De- 
molins said frankly : " We propose to create in France a new 
type of school, better adapted to the exigencies of actual 



380 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

life." ^ And with that in view he established a school, pat- 
terned largely after Abbotsholme in England, where physical 
activity (including play and manual work) and a closer rela- 
tion between teachers and pupils are the dominant charac- 
teristics. The failure of the ideas to be copied widely and 
the opposition to these endeavors that unquestionably exists 
in France to-day may perhaps be accounted for in an analysis 
offered by M. Demolins himself. In other words, socially 
considered, France and England belong to two quite distinct 
types of people ; the former, in common with Germany and 
the other countries of Western Europe, represents the people 
of " communistic formation," and the latter, in conjunction 
with the Scandinavian nations, belongs to the people of 
" particularistic formation." ^ The first of these depends 
upon the community or group ; the second upon the individ- 
uals in that group. Thus it is plain to be seen that any 
attempt to emphasize individual initiative (as we understand 
the term) among the people of " communistic formation," is 
bound to be met with disfavor if not with actual hostility. 
Furthermore, the relatively heavj^ expenses of the instruction 
at the schools like that of M. Demolins have likewise mili- 
tated against their success. The French parent is going to 
consider very carefully before he pays twenty-five hundred 
francs per year for his boy's schooling, when the facilities of 
the very best of the state lyc^es are at his command for a 
little more than half that sum. It would be unfair to say 
that these schools have not succeeded, but in view of the small 
number of such institutions that have already been founded 
one would hardly be justified in according any large measure 
of success to the movement. Indeed, it is hard to see how 
these schools can compete successfully with the government 
schools, for, aside from the disadvantage on the score of 
expense, those private venture schools cannot iu the long run 
attract the highest type of teachers. The best men will nat- 
urally prefer the state appointment with its higher social 

1 Demolins, L'education nouvelle, Preface, p. v. 

2 Demolins, A quoi tient la superioriti des Anglo-Saxons, p. 53, ei seq. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY 381 

standing, the security of the tenure, the certain though slow 
advancement, and the assurance of a pension at the end. 
With such a highly centralized state system of education as 
one finds in France, the only hope for any effective reform must 
come through the central authorities themselves. There is 
little chance of effecting much through the medium of such 
isolated institutions as the £cole des Roches and kindred 
establishments. 

The trend toward vocational training which is so unmis- 
takable in Germany and the United States is not so clearly 
defined in the public school system of France, 
This neglect in the last named country is ^ocational 

1 TCT1 11 i raining. 

more apparent than real, tor the demand there 
is being met by the establishment of a parallel system of 
schools under the direction of the Minister of Commerce and 
Industry, The aim of these schools is primarily vocational, 
the intellectual aspect of their work being purely subordi- 
nate. Where the emphasis is still upon the intellectual side, 
the work is carried on in the schools of the department of 
public instruction. Besides these public schools under the 
Minister of Commerce and Industry, there are many similar 
industrial schools under the public charge that have been 
established by municipal, departmental, or private munifi- 
cence. Practically all of these, as well as the commercial, 
industrial, and agricultural sections of the higher primary 
schools are intended to supplement the educational facilities 
offered to the children of the lower bourgeoisie and the 
laboring classes. Thus far the secondary school authorities 
have not recognized the claims of any form of manual work 
to a place in their curriculum, despite the fact that there 
were evidences of a tendency in that direction among some 
of the members of the superior council back in 1903 or 
earlier.^ Indeed, as has already been pointed out, even in 
such subjects as physics, chemistry, and biology, where the 
value of the experimentation would seem to be axiomatic, 

^ CoMPAYR^, Eecent educational progress in France, Ed, Rev., Jan., 1904, 
p. 30. 



382 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

the doing side of the work has been strangely neglected. 
For generations the curriculum of the secondary school 
has existed solely for the " idea thinker." So while appar- 
ently the character of the instruction has succeeded in de- 
veloping a lot of " idea thinkers," the success has not been 
so great as would appear at first sight, for since all the checks 
upon the system emphasize this same mental aspect, the 
whole scheme of work exercises a powerful selective function, 
and the residue, or those that survive such a struggle, rep- 
resent in the first place only those that are strong in abstract 
thinking, and in the second place those that are able to 
profit most by that method of instruction. There is little or 
no place in such a scheme of education for the concrete 
thinker or for the one in whom the capacity for abstract 
thinking appears late. The latter is usually so handicapped 
when he eventually develops this power, that he drops by 
the way in the latter part of the course, solely for the 
lack of the concrete material at the proper time that might 
have accelerated the growth of this higher power. 

The more one studies educational history, the more is one 
forced to the conclusion that a nation's educational system 

Th School ^® ^^® natural outgrowth of the social ideals of 
and the the people. These latter determine the school. 

Social Ideals. ^y^;[]^g q^q gchool plays a large part in perpetu- 
ating these ideals, it has relatively little power to modify 
them, and then only when it is backed up by public opin- 
ion. Thus the French educational system is necessarily the 
outgrowth of the social conditions there. On more than 
one occasion it has been proposed to make instruction in the 
secondary schools free, as it is in both the primary schools 
and the universities, but the project has hardly been con- 
sidered seriously on account of the immense financial expen- 
diture involved. The only step that has been taken in that 
direction thus far has been to separate in the budget the 
expenses entailed by the boarding pupils from those that 
properly belong to the educational account. It has long 
been notorious that the cost of maintaining the boarding 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY 383 

pupils is considerably in excess of the income paid by these 
pupils. This is a questionable distribution of state funds 
that partakes decidedly of unfair paternalism. When the 
girls' lyc^es were first founded, upwards of a quarter of a 
century ago, the government studiously avoided this diffi- 
culty by refusing to establish boarding departments in con- 
nection therewith. Where these boarding departments exist 
at girls' schools they are maintained at private or municipal 
expense. Thus the professional classes in France are re- 
cruited from a comparatively small proportion of the total 
population, the vast majority of the people being rendered 
ineligible from such preferment from purely financial rea- 
sons — a condition that does not accord with our American 
ideas of democracy and equality of opportunity. The fact 
that the secondary schools exist primarily for the recruit- 
ment of the professional classes renders the likelihood of 
introducing vocational training into these schools more re- 
mote than ever. Such is the pressure imposed upon teachers 
and pupils alike by the examinations impending at the end 
of the course, that a subject not required by this test has 
small chance of fair treatment in the schools, especially as 
the examination period approaches. The lack of consider- 
ation devoted to the relative values of the various subjects 
militates decidedly against the prospect of any immediate 
change in this regard. 

The comparatively few secondary teachers who evidence a 
social interest in the welfare of their pupils only intensify 
.the general feeling that the chief aim of the 
French secondary school is scholarship. This '^'g^hool*'^^ 
merely emphasizes the " communistic forma- 
tion " characterization of M. Demolins, to which reference has 
already been made. The individual is developed to the highest 
degree, not for his own advancement, but for the national 
good. 'Thus there is no particular effort to raise the general 
standard of all secondary school pupils except so far as that is 
conducive to the development of a higher type of leader. In 
other words, the selective function of the French"^ secondary 



384 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

school is one of its most highly developed features. This 
process extends over a term of years, and every prize offered, 
every honorable mention awarded, only tends to engrave 
this characteristic the more deeply upon the very nature of 
the people. It is not long since every secondary school 
sought to make a record for itself in the general compe- 
tition, an annual examination held in Paris, whose prime 
purpose was to stimulate the individual to extraordinary 
effort, but here again not for the benefit that might accrue 
to the individual, but because the higher the standard at- 
tained here, the greater the chance of turning out an efficient 
type of general, engineer, lawyer, doctor, teacher. Since the 
abolition of this examination in 1904, after an existence of 
more than a century and a half, the chief interest of each 
school seems to center upon the number of successful can- 
didates it can send up for the baccalaureate, and more par- 
ticularly upon the success of its boys in the competitive 
examinations for admission to the various government higher 
schools. The entrance courts of some of the lyc^es with their 
honor tablets bearing the names of former pupils who have 
been successful in these competitive examinations remind one 
strongly of the trophy room walls of an American college gym- 
nasium, inscribed with the names of famous atliletes, but these 
tablets bear silent testimony to the primacy of the scholar- 
ship ideal in the mind of the French secondary school boy. 
It is undeniable that this whole system succeeds admirably 
in attaining the end set before it, and that by a frequent and 
careful sifting of all the best material drawn, as has previ- 
ously been indicated, from a relatively small proportion of 
the people, the State selects the most promising individuals 
from whom to develop its future leaders. It is thus spared 
the necessity of spending vast sums upon large numbers of 
individuals who have not the mental endowment to enable 
them to rise to the highest levels. In any such scheme as 
this, it is always significant to consider those that have fallen 
by the way, in other words, to " count the dead," for the mor- 
tality in this particular instance is very heavy. Perhaps the 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY 385 

end has been attained at too great a cost. Perhaps, on the 
other hand, the French temperament has need of this ob- 
jective incentive in the way of rewards and distinctions 
in order to draw forth the best that lies within. Indeed, 
more than one French teacher has declared this to be the 
fact ; but it is significant to observe that there has been no 
appreciable falling off in scholarship on account of the aboli- 
tion of the general competition, despite the pessimistic proph- 
ecies of some of the partisans of the traditional practice. 

To the inspection of the casual observer, the schools of the 
twentieth century, barring the case of the modern languages, 
present little outward difference from those preceding the re- 
form. There has been no marked modification in buildings 
or equipment ; there has been no new subject added to the 
curriculum ; and except in the modern languages, as noted 
above, there have been few radical changes in methods of 
teaching. It has been a reorganization of courses where 
the pupil can more readily find something to fit his tastes. 
This is nothing like free election of subjects, but rather a 
kind of group system. To use a figure of M. Compayr^, ^ 
the youth in a lyc^e is in the position of a traveler in a central 
railroad station from which four trains are about to depart. 
He may select the train that is going in the direction he 
desires to go, but once his choice is made, once seated in his 
train, he is practically compelled to continue therein until the 
end of the journey. Although this same writer recognized 
the possibility of a still greater freedom of election among 
the different subjects of instruction, no definite tendency 
toward expanding this slight measure of freedom has yet 
appeared, but this step is significant as marking a wide 
departure from previous conditions. Indeed, such a further 
modification would be little short of revolutionary. The 
relatively rigid stratification of the French social life with its 
correlative early specialization in school activities would 
almost seem to exclude such a change from the realm of 
probabilities. 

1 Ed. Rev., XXV., p. 136. 
25 



386 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

There is one other phase of French school life that deserves 
a passing mention, especially since it finds no place in the 

official reports — the growing interest in ath- 
Athl'etkjs'^ letics. Unfortunately on account of the reason 

just stated, the subject does not admit of sta- 
tistical treatment, but despite the fearfully crowded day of 
the secondary school boy, traces of a growing interest in 
various forms of organized sport are almost everywhere dis- 
coverable. This change is significant, not so much from the 
progress already achieved as for the radical departure from the 
traditional apathy toward these activities. The contrast to 
the conditions that prevailed even six years ago is particularly 
marked. Whereas, formerly, this interest was entirely spon- 
taneous, sporadic, and transitory, working itself out in a 
" scrub " game of football during the afternoon recreation 
period, it is now beginning to assume a more organized form. 
School football teams have been formed at most of the schools, 
especially those whose rural situation simplifies the question 
of a suitable and accessible playground. The schools of Paris 
have a series of games annually for first and second teams in 
Eugby and Association football, as well as cross-country races, 
short dashes, field events, and fencing contests, all organized 
by the national athletic association. Still anything like the 
general interest in sport or the athletic hero that prevails 
so largely in our American schools is absolutely unknown. 
Much less is there any encouragement toward the develop- 
ment of a capacity for leadership or executive control that free, 
spontaneous participation in athletics under student direction 
inevitably provides. Yet the presence of even this modicum 
of activity is especially noteworthy as marking an evolution 
in the interests of the French schoolboy. 

The new secondary school, then, embodies an amount of 
flexibility of course and variety of subject matter, that would 

have dumbfounded the French school man of 
fhe^Chan^l ®^®^ ^ quarter of a century ago. It represents 

a definite attempt to make the school respond 
more adequately and readily to the changed ideals of the 



CHARACTERISTICS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY 387 

modern industrial and social conditions. Although even 
its most ardent partisans do not claim that the present ad- 
justment is perfect, such is the conservatism of the educational 
authorities that it is likely to be many a long day before any 
such fundamental changes take place again; for however 
radical the Frenchman may be in his theories, he is cautious 
in experimentation, and conservative to a degree in modifying 
the time-honored traditions. One has only to point out 
the painstaking and voluminous parliamentary investigation 
that preceded the late reform in support of this contention. 
Above all the system is thoroughly French and adapted to the 
needs and conditions of French life. It is eminently fitted 
" to continue that high intellectual culture which for several 
centuries has been France's ornament and one of her most 
precious and dearest glories." ^ 

1 M. Chaumi]^, quoted by M. Compayr^, Ed. Rev., Feb., 1903, p. 142. 



APPENDIX A 

COPY OF MASTER'S DIPLOMA OF ONE PETRUS 
MANS ART, 1511 » 

Certificat d'6tvdes cCun Barhiste du temps 
d'Antoine Pelin, 
Imprimi dans DUBOULA Y, Historia universitatis Parisiensis, t. VI., 935, 
Pour les ann4es 1511-1514. 

Ego Furcaeus de Camhray, theologorum Parisiensium miQirans, 
certifico dudutn me rexisse unum cursum artium integrum in col- 
legio divae Barbarae Parisius ; in quo quidem cursu artium Petrus 
MANSART, diocesis Novioraensis, tunc scholaris, studuit sub me 
omnes libros, secundum consuetudinem universitatis Parisiensis 
requisites ad gradum licentiarum artium. Quem quidem gradum 
licentiarum artium sub me adeptus est anno Domini MDXIII, ante 
Pascha. Et quia calendissimus magister noster Pelin, tunc primar- 
ius dicti collegii divae Barbarae, dudum defunctus est, certifico 
eumdem Petrum MANSART fuisse verum artium scholasticum, 
non discholum nee vagabundum, sed moram trahentem in dicto 
collegio per tres annos cum dimidio aut eo circiter, durante scilicet 
praedicto cursu meo artium. Teste signo meo manuali huic 
cedulae apposite, anno MDXXXV, die vero martis xxx et pe- 
nultima, ante Pascha. 

1 Reprinted iu Quicherat, Histoire de Sainte-Barbe, I., p. 324. 



APPENDIX B 

CUERICULUM OF THE COLLEGES OF THE 
UNIVERSITY. STATUTES OF 1600 ^ 

YOUNGER BOYS. Rules of grammar ; selections from Terence, 
from Cicero's Letters, from Virgil's Bucolics, and from other 
authors of like purity. 

MORE ADVANCED PUPILS. Selections from Sallust, from 
Caesar's Commentaries, from Cicero's De officiis and his easier 
Orations, as well as Virgil and Ovid. Latin grammar reviewed 
with Greek grammar. 

SECOND AND FIRST FORMS. More important works of 
Cicero, i. e., the Orations, the Tusculan disputations, and 
other philosophical works, De oratore, Brutus, the Rhetoric, 
and the Topica being read with Quintilian ; Virgil, Horace, 
Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Persius, Juvenal, and some- 
times Plutarch. 

Greek : grammar ; selections from Homer, either the Iliad 
or the Odyssey ; the Works and days of Hesiod ; the Idylls of 
Theocritus ; some of the dialogues of Plato ; some orations of 
Demosthenes and Isocrates ; the Hymns of Pindar and others 
of his works, according to the choice of the master and the 
ability of the pupils. 

PHILOSOPHY FORM. First year : in the morning,- the Cate- 
gories, the Analytics, and the Topics of Aristotle ; in the after- 
noon, the Ethics. 

Second year : in the morning, the Physics of Aristotle ; in 
the afternoon, the Metaphysics, especially books iv. and xi. 
At six o'clock in the morning, a single hour was devoted to a 
study of the sphere and some books of Euclid. 

1 JouRDAiN, Histoirc de VUnivcrsite de Paris, Appendix, pp. 4-5. 

2 The morning class waa frona eight until eleven o'clock, and the afternoon 
from two until five. 



APPENDIX C 

PAEIS COLLEGES, 1600, CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF 
FOUNDATION 1 



t 1180 


[des 18 ou de Notre Dame] 


* 


1336 


de Lisieux 


* 


d'Harcourt 


t 


1339 


d'Hubant 


t 1248 


des Bons-Enfants-St. Vic- 


t 


1341 


d'Antun 




tor 


t 


1343 


[de Mignon] 


1256 


de Sorbonne 


t 


1348 


de Cambrai 


1271 


[de Calvi] 


t 




de St. Michel 


1292 


[de Tournai] 




1353 


[de Boncourt] 


t 1295 


des Chollets 


t 


1354 


de Justice 


t 1302 


d' Arras 


t 


1358 


de Boissy 


* 


du Cardinal Lemoine 


t 


1368 


du Tresorier 


* 1304 


de Navarre 


t 


1370 


de Maitre Gervais 


t 1308 


de Bayeux 


t 


1380 


de Daimville 


t 1313 


de Laon 


t 


1393 


de Fortet 


* 1314 


de Montaigu 


t 


1412 


de Reims 


t 1317 


de Cornouailles 


* 


1423 


de la Marche 


t 


de Narbonne 


t 


1424 


de Seez 


t 1322 


de Presles-Beauvais 




1463 


[de Coqueret] 


* 


du Plessis 


t 


1526 


[du Mans] 


1323 


des Ecossais 


t 


1556 


de Sainte-Barbe ^ 


t 1325 


[de Treguier] 


* 


1569 


des Grassins 


1329 


[de Marmontiers] 








t 1331 


de Bourgogne 


* 


1661 


Mazarin ou des Quatre 


t 1333 


de Tours 






Nations ^ 



1334 [des Lombards] 

t Suppressed and joined with Louis-le-Grand by letters patent, Nov. 
21, 1763. Chauvin, Histoire des lycees et colleges, pp. 37, 285-291. 

* Full course colleges. No one of these was consolidated with Louis- 
le-Grand at the above date. 

[ ] Colleges marked thus disappeared during the seventeenth century. 
JouRDAiN, Histoire de I'Universite de Paris, p. 38. 

In several instances, colleges are found marked [ ], and f- These are 
discrepancies between Jourdain and Chauvin which it has been im- 
possible to reconcile. 

1 Lantoine, Histoire de V enseignement secondaire en France ait XVII^ 
siecle, p. 276. 

2 Sainte-Barbe existed without endowment from 1469 to 1556. The date 
here given is that of the foundation of the endowed college. 

^ Mazarin, 1661, does not properly belong in this list. It has been added 
here for purposes of general information. 



392 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 





COLLEGES 


OF 


THE 


RELIGIOUS ORDERS 


1221 


des Jacobins 






1269 deCluny 


1230 


des Cordeliers 






1297 des Blancs-Manteaux 


1244 


des Bernardins 






1515 de la Merci 


1252 


de Pr6montr6 






1564 de Clermont 


1259 


des Carmes 









APPENDIX D 

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF FOUNDATION" OF THE 
UNIVERSITIES OF FRANCE IN EXISTENCE AT 
THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ^ 



1200 Paris 
1229 Toulouse 
1289 Montpellier 
1303 Avignon 
1306 Orleans 



1332 Cahors 

1364 Angers 

1365 Orange 
1409 Aix 

1431 Poitiers 

1432 Caen 



1452 Valence 
1460 Nantes 
1464 Bourges 
1473 Bordeaux 2 
1547 Reims 



UNIVERSITIES OF COUNTRIES SUBSEQUENTLY 
TO FRANCE 



ADDED 



1424 Dole 
1562 Douai 



1564 BesanQon 

1572 Pont-a-Mousson 



1621 Strasbourg 



1 JouRDAiN, Histoire de T University de Paris, p. 2, note. 

2 This date is supplied from Kilian and other writers to correct the evident 
error, 1441, which appears in Joukdain. (F, E. F.) 



APPENDIX E 

CUERICULUM OF THE JESUITS: EATIO STUDIORUM, 1599 ^ 



Class 



Subjects of Instruction, and Time Allowance 



Morning 



Afternoon 



Authors and 
Remarks 



Sixth 



Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
Latin and Greek gram- 
mar 

Correction of task 

Latin translation, re- 
view and advance . . 

Mother tongue and 
accessory exercises . . 



ih. 
^h. 



ih. 



Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
the grammar .... 1 h. 

Translation of Latin 
author. Greek reading, 
a quarter-hour twice a 
week. Dictation of the 
composition work . . 1 h. 

Discussion. Mother 
tongue and accessory 
exercises ^ h. 



Cicero, Extracts; 
Phsedrus, Fables; i 
Nepos, Lives. — — 

Greek, Exercises 
in reading and writ- 
ing- I 



Fifth 



Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
Latin and Greek gram- 
mar f h. 

Correction of task . ^ h. 

Translation, review 
and advance .... f h. 

Mother tongue and 
accessory exercises . . i h. 



Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
the grammar .... 1 h. 

Translation of Latin 
and Greek authors al- 
ternately every two 
days. Dictation of the 
composition work . . 1 h. 

Discussion. Mother 
tongue and accessory 
exercises i h. 



Cicero, Selected 
letters; Caesar; 
Ovid, Selections; 
.(Esop, Fables; 
Cebes; Lucian, Se- 
lected dialogues. 



Fourth 



Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
the Latin and Greek 
grammar f h. 

Correction of task . | h. 

Translation, review 
and advance .... ^ h. 

Mother tongue and 
accessory exercises . . i h. 



Recitation on Latin 
grammar, versification, 
and the author, on suc- 
ce.ssive days 1 h. 

Translation of a Latin 
poet and a Greek au- 
thor, alternately every 
other day. Dictation of 
the composition work . 1 h. 

Discussion. Mother 
tongue and accessory 
exercises ^ h. 



Cicero, Letters, De 
ainiciiia, De senec- 
tiite; Easy speeches 
of Cicero; Sallust; 
Quintus Curtius; 
Extracts from Livy, 
Ovid, Catullus, Ti- 
bullus, Propertius, 
and Virgil: Ec- 
logues; Gcorgics, 4:th. 
bk.; ^Eneid, '5th and 
7th bks. 

Greek: St. Chrys- 
ostom, Xenophon, 
and other similar 
authors. 



Plan d'^tudes des Jdsicites, in GriiIARD, Enscignement sccondaire, II., pp. 284-285. 



APPENDIX E 



395 



CXASS 


Subjects of Instruction, and Time Allowance 


Authors and 




Morning 


Afternoon 


Remarks 


Third 


Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
the grammar. General 
principles of elocution 
and style f h. 

Correction of task . f h. 

Translation, review 
and advance .... f h. 

Mother tongue and 
accessory exercises . . 4 h. 


Recitation on the 
Latin author, and on 
the grammar .... 1 h. 

Translation, every 
other day, of a Latin 
poet, and a Greek 
(or interpretation of a 
French) author. Dic- 
tation of the compo- 
sition work 1 h. 

Discussion and acces- 
sory exercises .... ^ h. 


Cicero, Speeches; 
Caesar; Sallust; 
Livy; Quintus Cur- 
tius; JUneid (save 
the fourth book); 
Horace, Odes (se- 
lected). 

Greek: Isocrates; 
St. Chrysostom; St. 
Basil; Plato; Plu- 
tarch; Phocylides; 
Theognis; St. Greg- 
ory of Nazianzus; 
Synesius. 


Second 


No special program 


No special program 


No special pro- 
gram. 


Chetoric 


Memory work. Trans- 
lation, review and ad- 
vance 1 h. 

Reading from an ora- 
tor, review and ad- 
vance. Dictation of a 
text from an oration. 
Discussion and acces- 
sory exercises .... 1 h. 


Translation of pas- 
sages from the rhetoric. 
Translation of a Greek, 
or interpretation of a 
French, author .... 1 h. 

Reading from one of 
the poets. Correction 
of the task of the morn- 
ing. Dictation of the 
subject of an oration . 1 h. 


For the principles 
of rhetoric, Cicero 
and Quintilian. No 
special directions as 
to the Latin authors 
to be translated. 

Greek: Demosthe- 
nes, Plato, Thucy- 
dides. Homer, He- 
siod, Pindar, St. 
Gregory of Nazian- 
zus, St. Basil, St. 
Chrysostom. 

On holidays one 
of the historians or 
some passage of his- 
torical significance 
is explained. 



APPENDIX F 

EXTRACT FROM THE CASH ACCOUNT OF MONSIEUR 
FILLEY DE LA BARRE^ 

1706-1728 

The young Filley at the age of nine was sent to Paris to hoard 
with his guardian, Denis Leroux, paying therefor 300^.^ per year 
from 1714 to 1719, 360^. in 1720, 400Z. in 1721, and 450Z. in 
1722. 

"The Jesuits gave no elementary instruction and took pupils only 
from the sixth form. So Filley was entrusted, April 23, to a school- 
master or tutor named Dusossois. The latter received 21. per 
month, and 31. beginning with the following October. Furthermore 
he received various New Year's presents : two capons (costing 21. 
10s.) in 1715 ; one capon (IZ. 5s.) in 1716 ; two pullets (ll. I6s.) in 
1717 ; one turkey Ql. 18s.) in 1718 ; two pullets (ll. 10s.) in 1719 ; 
one capon (21.) in 1720. The first studies of the young pupil were 
limited to religion and grammar ; his books were Imitation of Clirist 
(21.) and a Psalm book (12s.). During the next two j^ears he had two 
Rudiments (elementary Latin grammars) at 10s. and 15s. respectively ; 
two Prayer Books at 16s. (1714-1715); two Rudiments at 10s. (1715- 
1716). The boy did not trouble himself with work, and he was so 
careless that his books were soon ruined or lost and had to be replaced. 
To these expenses must be added the cost of heating, which amounted 
to ll. 5s. or ll. 10s. for all winter, and the fees of the dancing teacher, 
4Z. per month. These lessons lasted from April, 1715, to May, 1716. 
The little Filley did not take life too seriously. From July, 1714, 
he spent 15s. monthly in pleasure. Besides this, thanks to the good 

1 DuBROUX, transcribed from the Archives Mpartementales des Ardennes 
and published in the Revue universitaire, 1906, L, pp. 316-320. 

2 The monetary value of the livre, composed of twenty sous, was practically 
equivalent to that of the franc of to-day. It is almost needless to add that its 
purchasing power was considerably greater. 



APPENDIX F 397 

nature of his guardian, he spent at the Saint-Laurent fair, September 
13, 1714, 21. 17s. for sugared almonds, a Saint-Louis, a turtle, and the 
marionettes ; in August, 1714, and 1715, 11. 10s., and 10s. for tickets to 
a tragedy played by the Jesuits ; November 15, 1714, U. for a ticket to 
the fireworks; February 21, 1715, ]5s. for the rope dancers; August 
18, 6s. for a place on the occasion of the coming of the Portuguese am- 
bassador. He had his purse filled at New Year's. His mother gave 
him 21. 10s. in 1715, and 3Z. in 1716, and his Mother Carline in the 
convent at Dinant, 51. in 1715. 

" In October, 1716, without discontinuing the lessons vi^ith his tutor, 
Filley entered the sixth form at the College Louis-le-Grand. Instruc- 
tion being gratuitous, his expenses included only the fee of the servant 
that swept out the class room (3s. per month, besides New Year's 
presents) ; the candle for lighting (15s. in winter) ; presents given to 
regent of the college (21. in 1715 and 1716 for a bouquet of artificial 
flowers) ; and the purchase of text-books. The following are the pur- 
chases with the dates of the same : 

"SIXTH FORM (1716-1717), October 1: Latin-French dictionary, 
21. 15s. ; Rudiment, 12s. ; Particles, 8s. ; Despautere (one of the 
books of his treatise on grammar, written in Latin, and consisting of 
Rudiments, Grammatica, Syntaxis, Prosodia, De figuris et tropis), 
12s. November 20: Catechism, 4s. April 1 : Phaedrus, ll. 
10s. ; Rudiment, 12s. Greek grammar, 10s.; Leaves of Cicero 
(specially arranged so that the pupils could write interlinear or 
marginal notes), 3s. August 25 : Rudiment and Particles, 
ll. 2s. 

"FIFTH FORM (1717-1718), October: Cicero and Ovid, ll. lis. ; 
Eutropius, 14s.; Syntax, 14s.; Greek, 12s.; Particles, 10s.; 
Catechism, 4s. January : A French author, ll. 5s. 

"FOURTH FORM (1718-1719), October 1: Despautere, 15s.; 
Cl^nart (or Kleinarts, Flemish philologist, author of Institutiones 
ac meditationes in Graecam linguam), 12s. ; D^lices, 14s. ; Author, 
14s. ; Catechism, 4s. January : Catechism, 4s. April 15 : Nepos 
14s. ; Greek roots, ll. 5s. 

"THIRD FORM (1719-1720), October 1 : Quintus Curtius, ll. ; 
Virgil, complete, 1/. ; Latin dictionary, 4Z. 10s. ; Synonyms of 
the new edition, Al. ; Greek fables, 10s. April 1 : Cicero, 7s. ; 
Saint John Chrysostom, 12s.; Accents, ll. 10s. 

"SECOND FORM (1720-1721), October 1: Cicero, 4s.; Virgil, ll. 
10s. ; Sallust, 21. 10s, ; Horace, 3Z. ; Batrachomyomachia (the battle 
of the rats and the frogs, commonly attributed to Homer), 5s. June : 
Horace, ll. 15s. ; Cicero, 8s. ; Velleius Paterculus, 12s. 



398 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

" RHETORIC FORM (1721-1722), October 10: Cicero, 9s. ; Juvenal, 
21. 10s. ; Livy, 21. lOs. ; Analysis of Cicero's Orations, 31. 10s. 

" The list is incomplete for the last class, for Filley left Paris in March, 
1722, before he had to buy the second lot of books for the year." 

The various sums charged up to the purchase of catechisms do 
not seem to have resulted in any very beneficial effect on the life 
and character of this youth, for on at least two subsequent 
occasions further sums of money were expended for masses 
destined to bring about a reform in his actions, and in November 
and December, 1720, somebody seems to have taken a more 
practical means of assuring proper behavior on the young man's 
part by paying the aforementioned sweeper of the class room 21. 
5s. per month to conduct him from the college to his guardian's 
house and back again. 



APPENDIX G 

CUERICULUM OF THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGES, 176 — 
ACCORDING TO ROLLAND^ 

SIXTH FORM. The Maxims of Tobias, and the moral books of the 
Old Testament ; the gospels for Sundays and holidays ; the cate- 
chism of the diocese; Old Testament history ; an abridged French 
grammar ; principles of the Latin language ; Furgault's Greek 
grammar ; selected stories from the Old Testament ; sacred col- 
loquies ; Cicero's J etters ; the fables of ^sop, Phaedrus, and La 
Fontaine ; Aurelius Victor. 

FIFTH FORM. The Maxims of Tobias, and the moral books ot 
the Old Testament ; the gospels for Sundays and holidays ; the 
catechism of the diocese ; an abridged French grammar ; principles 
of the Latin language ; Furgault's Greek grammar ; Nepos ; 
Justin ; selections from profane history ; selected precepts of 
Cicero ; the fables of ^sop, Phaedrus, and La Fontaine ; simple 
letters chosen from different authors ; a knowledge of mythology, 
the questions and answers being given in French. 

FOURTH FORM. Maxims from the Scriptures ; the epistles and 
gospels ; the catechism of Paris ; principles of the Latin language, 
second part ; Furgault's Greek grammar ; an abridged French 
grammar ; iEsop's fables ; the gospel according to Luke (in 
Greek) ; Cicero's De senectute and De amicitia, his letter to 
Quintus, the paradoxes, and moral precepts chosen from him ; 
Csesar ; Ovid ; Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics ; an abridged 
Roman history. 

THIRD FORM. Sentences and verses from the Scriptures, the epistles 
and the gospels. 

Before Easter : Cicero : De ojfficiis, De natura deorum, and the Tuscu- 
lansj Letters to Atticus ; rules of Latin prosody ; Quintus Curtius ; 
Paterculus ; some books of the Metamorphoses. 
After Easter : Some of Cicero's orations, such, for example, as the 

1 Greard, lilducation et instruction, Enseignement secondaire, II., pp. 288- 
289. 



400 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Catilines, or the Manilian law; Sallust (distributed over two 
years). The Georgics and the first two books of the Mneid in 
alternate years. 

Greek : Some of Lucian's dialogues ; selected passages from 
Herodotus ; the orations of Isocrates ; Plutarch ; Greek roots. 
French : Morning — Restaut's grammar, together with selections 
from the best authors ; at the end of the year, Vertot's Roman 
revolution. Afternoon — An abridged history of Greece with geo- 
graphical and chronological commentaries upon that history. 

SECOND FORM. Sentences and verses from the Scriptures, the 
epistles and the gospels. 

Before Easter : Cicero : De oratore, or oratorical selections. 
After Easter : Some of Cicero's orations (other than those read in the 
third form) ; selected passages from the Cyropcedia, or some of Plu- 
tarch's Lives; the jEneid, the first six books alternating yearly 
with the last six. 

Throughout the year: Horace, Odes or Satires ; alternately the satires 
of Boileau or the finest odes of Rousseau ; the finest passages from 
the Iliad or the Odyssey ; Restaut's French grammar. Several 
other books in addition, some of which shall be chosen for reading 
aloud. 

Morning — Bossuet, Universal history ; Vertot, Revolution in Por- 
tugal; Abbe Saint-Real, The Venetian confederation; Pellisson, 
History of the French Academy ; Fontenelles, Eloges acad^miqties ; 
Montesquieu, Grandeur des Romains ; etc. Evening — An abridged 
history of France. 

RHETORIC FORM. Ancients : Demosthenes, Isocrates, Sallust, 
Livy, Tacitus, Horace (especially the Ars poetica), Virgil, Perseus, 
Juvenal. 

Moderns: St. Cyprian, St. Jerome, Salvian, Lactantia, St. Basil, St. 
Gregory, St. Chrysostom, Bossuet, Fl^chier, Mascaron, F^nelon, 
d'Aguesseau, Bourdaloue, Massillon, Boileau (especially his Art 
podique), the sacred tragedies and les Cantiques sacre's of Racine, le 
Poeme de la religion of Racine the younger, the Odes and the 
Psalms of Rousseau. 



APPENDIX H 

COMPAEATIVE DAILY PROGRAMS IN" 1769 AND 1874 ^ 

The day of a pupil at the College of Clermont (now the Ijcee 
Louis-le-Grand) in 1769, and the day of a pupil at the lycee Louis- 
le-Grand m 1874. 



College op Clermont 



LYciiE Louis-le-Grand 



5.30 


Rise 


5.30 


Rise 


6.00-7.45 


Study — learning the 
Scriptures 


6.00-7.30 


Study 


8.15-10.30 


Class work 


8.00-10.00 


Class work 


10.30-12.00 


Mass and study 


10.00-12.00 


1 Study. Religious 
lecture. Various 
exercises 






12.00-1.30 


Recreation 


1.00-2.00 


Study 


1.30-2.30 


Study 


2.15-4.00 


Class work 


2.30-4.30 


Class work 






4.30-5.00 


Recreation 


5.00-6.00 


Study 


5.00-8.00 


Study 


6.00-7.00 


Lecture for the phi- 
losophy students 






7.00-8.00 


Study 






8.00-9.00 


Supper and recreation 






9.00 


Bed 


9.30 


Bed 



Note. In the program of 1769, breakfast must have come between 
7.45 and 8.15, and dinner from 12.00 to 12.30, with probably a short 
recreation period until one o'clock. 

In the program of 1874, breakfast came at 7.30, and dinner during 
the first part of the so-called recreation period from 12.00 to 1.30. 
Supper was undoubtedly at eight o'clock. 

1 Lantoine, Histoire de V enseignement secondaire en France au XVIP 
si&cle, p. 288. 



26 



APPENDIX I 

OCCUPATIONS OF PARENTS OF SCHOLARSHIP 
HOLDERS APPOINTED IN 1906-1907 ^ 

(Boys and Girls) 



Occupations 



Boys 



No. of 
schol- 
arships 



Per 

cent 



Girls 



S o 



Per 
cent 



Professors of higher and secondary education 

Officers and teachers of primary system . . 

Army and navy officers, in active service or 
retired 

Non-commissioned officers, army and navy, 
gendarmes and forest guards 

State, departmental, and communal officers 

Business employes 

Railway employes 

Liberal professions: doctors, pharmacists, 
barristers, architects, men of letters, art- 
ists, etc 

Merchants 

Agriculturists, farmers, and small proprie- 
tors 

Artisans and laborers 

Clergymen 

Notaries, bailiffs, and court officers .... 

Miscellaneous 



Total functionaries paid from the public 
treasury 



34 
211 

91 

90 
269 

78 
33 



60 

82 



104 
13 
16 



1,158 



695 



2.93 

18.20 

7.84 

7.75 

23.22 

6.73 

2.93 



5.18 

7.08 

6.73 
8.97 
1.12 
1.37 



60.0 



35 
22 



204 



121 



9.3 
27.4 

1.9 

3.3 

17.1 

9.3 

2.4 



4.4 
5.3 

4.9 
8.3 
1.4 
1.4 
1.4 



59.0 



Budget g&n6ral de I'exercice, 1908, p. 77. 



APPENDIX J 

MENU. LYCEE LAKANAL, SCEAUX^ 



Sunday 
Breakfast 
Luncheon 

Dinner 

Monday 

Breakfast 
Luncheon 
Dinner 
Tuesday 
Breakfast 
Luncheon 

Dinner 

Wednesday 
Breakfast 
Luncheon 

Dinner 

Thursday 

Breakfast 
Luncheon 

Dinner 



January 26 to February 1, 1908 

Coffee; butter. 

Calf's head, with oil; breaded veal cutlets; sausage, 

with mashed potatoes; apples. 
Vegetable soup; mutton cutlet; mixed vegetables; 

salad with eggs; Gruyere cheese. 

Coffee; butter. 

York ham ; fricassee of veal ; fried potatoes ; pineapples. 

Cr4cysoup; roast sirloin of beef ; rice with gravy ; jam. 

Chocolate. 

Fillets of herring; roast pork; macaroni with grated 

cheese; cream cheese. 
Peasant soup; mutton stew, with early vegetables; 

fried oyster plant; assorted nuts, figs, and raisins. 

Coffee; butter. 

Beef salad; roast veal; tomato sauce; potatoes with 

butter and parsley; cheese. 
Potato soup; leg of mutton; Brittany beans; stewed 

prunes. 

Coffee; butter. 

Maine patties; rabbit stew, with white wine; string 

beans ; apple marmalade. 
Parisian soup ; roast beef, bordelaise ; gratin dauphinois ; 

small cakes. 



1 From the menu posted in the entrance hall of the lycee. The official 
regulations require that the menu of the current week be signed by the head 
master, the school physicimi, and the bursar, and be posted in some conspicu- 
ous place. In this way, visiting parents may readily satisfy themselves as to 
the variety, at least, of the food that is set before their children. 



404 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Friday 

Breakfast Chocolate. 

Luncheon Potato salad; hard boiled eggs and cabbage; lentils 

with white wine; jam. 
Dinner Pea soup; potato omelet; rice pudding, with fruit; 

Camembert cheese. 
Saturday 
Breakfast Coffee; butter. 

Luncheon Pressed meat; beefsteak with water cress; baked cauli- 
flower with cheese ; cream cheese. 
Dinner Onion soup ; roast veal ; coffee custard ; small cakes. 

This is the menu for the sixth form boys and upward, but the 
younger children live a little more simply. Each boy has a 
quarter bottle of wine at luncheon and at dinner, and bread in 
abundance at every meal. Lakanal is said to be the pleasantest 
of all the French lycees at which to live, and so far as my own 
experience is concerned this reputation is justly deserved. The 
fees are relatively high there, and this naturally allows a wider 
and more varied menu than is possible at the less expensive 
schools in the country. 

As evidence of the strict economy of the French kitchen, it may 
be observed that every particle of meat that goes into the dining 
room is carefully weighed by the chief cook, and every scrap has 
to be accounted for. In some lycees each individual portion is 
weighed, while in others the eight or ten portions required at a 
table are cut together and the boys left to divide them at the 
table. In the best schools the boys receive from one seventh to 
one fifth of a pound of meat each, according to their age, at a 
meal, but in the smaller schools this quantity is somewhat less. 
There is ordinarily an abundant supply of bread and vegetables. 
So, too, in the largest schools, the wine allowance for the oldest 
pupils is all pure wine, while for the younger it is diluted. In 
either case the boys, according to the universal French custom, 
mix it with water to suit their taste. As the price of board de- 
creases, we are likely to find the purity of the wine decreasing at 
least as rapidly pi'oportionally. 



APPENDIX K 

PROGEAM OF THE EXAMINATION (LETTERS) FOR 

THE CERTIFICATE FOE TEACHING IN 

GIRLS' SECONDARY SCHOOLS ^ 

Ethics 

In ethics the subject will be chosen from the programs of the 
girls' secondary schools. The following summary will serve as a 
guide to the candidates for the preparation of the questions of 
education and instruction : ^ 

1 . Aims of education and means of attaining the same : habits, prin- 
ciples. The education of women. The education of girls in our estab- 
lishments of secondary instruction in France. 

2. Physical education; exercises and games. Physical education 
of girls at the lycee. 

3. Moral education. Education of the will and the feelings. The 
different aspects and methods of character formation. Education of 
the moral conscience. 

4. Intellectual education according to age. Formation of the judg- 
ment and the taste. 

5. Domestic education. 

6. Instruction. Relative values of literature, history, poetry of 
the arts, the sciences, in secondary education of girls. 

7. Methods of instruction : the class, the course, the art of question- 
ing, the reading of texts, the choice and correction of home work. 

8. Discipline. 

9. What should be the spirit of the school? How attained? 

» Bull, adm., 1907, II., pp. 341-343. 

2 Candidates may furthermore consult with profit among other books the 
following : 

F^NELON — TraiU de VMucation des filles ; Rousseau. — L'ilmile ; Spen- 
cer. — Vilducation intellectuelle, morale et physique; Mme. Necker de 
Saussure. — L' Education progressive ou ^tude du cours de la vie ; Gr^ard. 
— L' Education des femmes par les femmes. Instructions, programmes et 
r^glevients de I'enseignement secondaire dans les lycies de garqons. 



406 FRENCH SECONDARY . SCHOOLS 

French Literature 

1. Extracts from Mathurin Regnier. 

2. Corneille. — Don Sanche d'Aragon, act I.; act II., sc. i.; act V. 

3. Moliere. — Les Fdcheux. 

4. Racine. — Britannicus. 

5. Boileau. — Satire III. (Le repas ridicule). Art poetique, chants I. 
et III. 

6. Mme. de S^vign^. — Lettres choisies; n° 20 a 30; n° 43; n° 55 a 
63; n° 67, 68, 84, 94. 

7. Buffon. — Discours sur le style. 

8. Voltaire. — C/w)ix de lettres; n° 18 a 21; n° 100 a 125; n° 134, 
137; n° 143 a 147. 

9. Mme. de Stael. — Pages choisies. Extracts from Considerations 
sur les principaux evenements de la Revolution frangaise, pp. 291-335. 

10. Choix des moralistes frangaises, Bougie et Beaunier, ed. — Ex- 
tracts from Malebranche, Nicole, Rollin, Rcnan, Bersot. 

11. Poesies domestiques: la Famille, pp. 60-129, dans les Extraits 
des poUes lyriques du XIX^ sikcle. 

History 

1. Roman institutions and customs during the last two centuries of 
the republic. 

2. French royalty, civilization, and arts of the thirteenth century. 

3. Russia, from the death of Catherine II. to the death of Alexander II. 

4. The Second Republic. 

Geography 

1. General. The progress of ocean exploration. Great oceano- 
graphic expeditions of the present. Purely geographical results of 
these explorations: state of our knowledge of ocean depths, currents, 
climates, fish and fisheries, and of the polar seas. 

2. France. Savoy, Dauphiny, and Provence. 

3. Europe. Spain and Portugal. 

4. Outside Europe. Japan and its dependencies. 

English AtrTHORS 

Shakespeare. — Macbeth. 

Tennyson. — Idylls of the King (abridged edition by A. Baret). 

William Morris. — News from Nowhere. 

Milton. — L' Allegro. — II Penseroso. 

German Authors 

Goethe. — Schweizerreise. 

Schiller. — Die Kraniche des Ibykus, dor Taucher, der Gang nach dem 
Eisenhammer, Wiirde der Frauen. 



APPENDIX K 407 

Korner. — Zriny. 

Von Wildenbruch. — Neid. 

Italian Authors 

Machiavel. — Storie Fiorentinie, books I. and II. 
Tasso. — Jerusalem delivree, cantos VII. and VIII. 
Alfieri. — Saiil. 
Massimo d'Azeglio. — Niccolo dei Lapi. 

Spanish Authors 

Quintana. — Vidas de Espanoles celebres. El Cid. 

Cervantes. — Don Quijote, part I., chapters VII., VIII., and IX. 

Moratin. — El si de las ninas. 

J. Zorilla. — A huen juez mejor testigo. 



APPENDIX L 

dipl6me d':etudes supeeieures de philosophie 



University de Paris 
Faculty des Lettrea 



Session de juin 
1908 



Noms^ 


Sujets de M^moires 


Note 
0a20 


Explication Critique de 
Textea 


Note 
0420 




1 


Interpretation et modifica- 






Lucrfece, De natura re- 








tion du Kantisme, par 


1 


14 


rum livre V. A^ 


7 


32 




K. D. Reinhold 


2 


11 








2 


L'exp^rience par illumi- 






Berkeley, Dialogues au- 








nation int^rieure chez 


1 


16 


tre Hylas et Philonous. 








Roger Bacon 


2 


15 


Trad. Beaulavon- 
Parodi. B 


14 


45 


3 


La philosophie morale de 


1 


16 


Alexandre, de anima, p. 








Th. Green 


2 


14 


60, livre I de I'edition 
de Bruns jusqu'a p. 
100. ligne 17. C 


13 


43 


4 


Les gestes stereotypes 


1 


10 


Platon, Sophiste, du 








dans la demence precoce 


2 


10 


chapitre 24 k la fin. 
C 


10 


30 


5 


L'influence de Jules Le- 






Kant, De mundi sensi- 








quyer sur la philosophie 


1 


14 


bilis atque intellegibi- 








de Ch. Renouvier 


2 


16 


lis forma atque princi- 
piis. D 


15 


45 


6 


Ficin traducteur et com- 


1 


12 


Rousseau, Contrat social, 








mentateur de Plotin 


2 


13 


livre I et II. E 


8 


33 


7 


Pathologie de la croy- 


1 


15 


Plotin, vi, 9. De l'un- 








ance 


2 


14 


ion du bien. F 


14 


43 


8 


La nature et la variation 
de retat de la matifere 






Epictfete, Dissertations, 
livre II du chapitre I 
au chapitre XII in- 








vivante appeiee " indi- 












vidu " (d'aprfes les 


1 


13 


clua. D 


12 


39 




, vegetaux inferieurs) 


2 


14 








9 


Etude sur rintroductioh 
en France de la philoso- 






Lucrtce, De natura re- 
rum, livre III. 








phie de Kant, depuLs \es 


1 


15 


F G 


7 


36 




origines jusgu'en 1820 
Psychologie dc la folie 


2 


14 








10 






Aristote, Physique, livre 








communiquee (Con- 






V'lII du chapitre 4 A 








tribution i retude de 


1 


17 


la fin. C 


13 


46 




la contagion mentale) 


2 


16 








11 


L'union de I'ame et du 






Platon, Republique, livre 








corps dans la philoso- 


1 


14 


V, depuis 475 B jusqu'- 








phie de Spinoza 


2 


15 


k la fin et livre VI 
entier. D 


11 


40 



1 The names of the candidates have been replaced by numbers, and of the 
examining professors by letters. 



APPENDIX L 



409 



Noms 


Sujets de M^moires 


Note 
Oa20 


Explication Critique de 
Textes 


Note 
0a20 


Is 

31 


12 


Le Dieu de Spinoza et ses 


1 


17 


Platon, Phddon, du cha- 








origines chez Descartes 


2 


17 


pitre XV inclus au 
chapitre LXVII ex- 
clus. C 


17 


51 


13 


Contribution a I'^tude de 


1 


16 


Aristote, Ethique a Nico- 








la religion de Descartes 


2 


15 


maque, livre I. H 


15 


46 


14 


L'esthetique de I'abb^ 
, Dubos 


1 
2 


6 


Spinoza, Ethique, livre 






15 


Etude critique de quel- 
ques theories contem- 






Comte, Cours de philos- 
ophie positive, 48 et 49 








poraines relatives au 


1 


11 


lecons. B 


8 


30 




moi 


2 


11 








16 


L'expression chez leg 


1 


10 


Spinoza, Ethique, livre 








mllancoliques 


2 


10 


I. H 


6 


26 


17 


La psychologie des Pas- 
sions en France depuis 
la Renaissance jusqu'- 
en 1650. (Introduc- 
tion au trait^ Des Pas- 
sions de Descartes) 


1 
2 


15 
15 


Platon, Menon. C 


13 


43 


18 


Du principe de causality 






Aristote, Politique, livre 








et de la liberty chez 


1 


10 


III. E 


13 


30 




Spinoza 


2 


7 








19 


Macrobe et N^oplaton- 


1 


13 


Schopenhauer, Critique 








isme 


2 


13 


de la philosophic kanti- 
enne dans "Le Monde" 
comme volont^ et re- 
pr&entation. B 


14 


40 


20 


Effets dynamiques de la 


1 


14 


Cic^ron, De natura re- 








sensation 


2 


13 


rum, livre I. F 


7 


34 


21 


La psvchologie de J.-L. 


1 


11 


Kant, Critique de la rai- 








Vives (1492-1540) 


2 


10 


son pure. Prefaces de 
la 1 et de la 2 Edition. 
Introd. A 


11 


32 


22 


Analyse critique de la m^- 
thode dans la Physique 
de Descartes 


1 


6 


Renouvier, Science de la 
morale, t. I, livre I 






23 


La philosophic sociale de 


1 


14 


Malebranche, Recherche 








Spinoza 


2 


10 


de la v^rit^, livre IV. 
G 


10 


34 


24 


La thdodic^e de Fdnelon 


1 


17 


Aristote, Physique, I. 










2 


16 


C 


16 


49 


25 


Nos connaissances sur la 






Descartes, Meditations, 








matifere d'aprfes lea 






II, III, IV. B 


14 


44 




faits recemment de- 














couverts et les id^es 


1 


15 










nouvellement mises en 














CEUvre (1895-1907) 


2 


15 









This will give a fairly comprehensive idea of the character of 
the questions and the general conduct of the examination for the 
higher diploma, the intermediate stage between the master's 
degree and the agregation. 

Each part of the examination is marked upon a scale of twenty. 
The first gives the valuation of the written essay, the second the 



410 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

grade obtained at the oral quiz upon that essay, the third the 
mark received upon the interpretation of the special text, assigned 
to the candidate three months before the examination, and the 
fourth the sum total of the other three. A mark of at least 
thirty is necessary in order to pass. 



APPENDIX M 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The character of this account of the French Secondary Schools 
and the circumstances under which it was written necessitated the 
almost exclusive use of French authorities. An effort has been 
made to cite the more important of the later articles in the Report 
of the United States Commissioner of Education for tlie benefit ot 
the reader to whom this foreign material will not be available. 
For further literature relating to education in France, see 

Columbia University Library Bulletin No. 2. Books on Education in 
the Libraries of Columbia University. N. Y., 1901 ; 

CuBBERLEY, Elwood P., Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Educa- 
tion. 2d ed. N. Y., 1904; and 

Farrington, Frederic Ernest, The Public Primary School System 
of France. N. Y., 1906. 

The unusual and rather arbitrary classification of the subjoined 
bibliography has been adopted with the view of rendering it more 
readily available for the reader. Under I. and II. will be found 
the historical material of both classes ; under III., the general 
secondary material (other than historical) that deals with phases 
of the subject not readily falling under the succeeding rubrics. 
The significance of the other captions will be self-evident. 

The bibliography makes no claim to completeness, especially on 
the method side under Subjects of Instruction. On this phase of 
the study, however, the author has consistently depended upon 
personal observation rather than upon the works of other writers 
in these fields. 

The following additional abbreviations are used in this bib- 
liography : 

Rev. int. for Revue Internationale de I'enseignement. 

Rev. univ. for Revue universitaire. 

The other abbreviations will need no interpretation. 



412 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



I. SOURCES 

Annuaire de Vinstruction publique et des beaux-arts. Delalain Frferee, 
publishers. Paris. 

Published yearly since 1851. 

Baluze, Etienne. Capitularia regum Francorum. 1780. 2 v. 

BuissoN, Ferdinand. Repertoire des ouvrages pedagogiques du XVI® 
siMe. Paris, 1886. xvi+ 733 pp. 

Chaptal, J. A. Rapport et projet de loi sur Vinstruction publique. Paris, 
An IX. (1800.) 134 pp. 

Chevalier, Michel. De Vinstruction secondaire, d Vocca^ion du rap- 
port au roi de M. Villemain. Paris, 1843. 35 pp. 

CoNDORCET. Rapport et projet de decret sur Vinstruction publique, pri- 
sentes a VAssemblee nationale au nom du Comite d'instruction pub- 
lique. Reprinted in Hippeau, q. v. 

Denifle, Henricus, et iEMiLiXTs Chatelain. Chartularium univer- 

sitatis Parisiensis. Parisiis, 1889-1897. 4 v. 

This monumental work, all source material, covers the period 1200-1452, the 
untimely death of the moving gpirit having stopped the publication at that 
point. 

Denifle, Heinrich. Die Entstehung der Universitdten des Mittelalters 
bis 1400. Berlin, 1885. xlv+ 815 pp. 

Documents : 

L' administration de Vinstruction publique, de 1863 a 1869, sou^ 
le ministhe de S. Exc. M. Duruy. Paris, 1869. xxiv+ 932 pp. 

Bulletin administratif du ministbre de Vinstruction publique. 

Paris, 1850- 

Published monthly until 1881, and weekly since that time. The ofBcial pub- 
lication of the Minister. 

Bulletin universiiaire contenant les ordonnances, rhglements, ei 
arretes concernant Vinstruction publique. Paris, 1829-1838. 7 v. 

Circxdaires et instructions officielles relatives a Vinstruction pub- 
lique. Paris, 1802-1900. 12 v. 

Circulaires et instructions officielles relatives a Vinstruction pub- 
lique publiees sou^ le ministhe de S. Exc. M. Duruy (1863-1869). 
Paris, xxiv + 716 pp. 

Journal general de Vinstruction ptiblique, 1831 d, 1870; 1879 d 
1882. 

Lois et actes de Vinstruction publique, 1848-1855. Paris. 8 v. 

Recueil de lois et rbglements concernant Vinstruction publique de- 
puis Vidit de Henri IV., en 1598, jusqu'd ce jour. Paris, 1804-1828. 
9v. 

Ends with 1827. Very incomplete for the pre-Revolutionary period. For 
continuation, see Rendu, infra. 



APPENDIX M 413 

Recueil de rhglements relatifs d I'enseignement secondaire. Paris, 
1900. ix+ 888 pp. 

Contains all the regulations in force in 1900. 

Reforme de I'enseignement, recueil des lois, decrets, arretes, cir- 
cidaires, instructions, et notes ministerielles, concernant les modifi- 
cations apportees a Vinstruction puhlique pendant le ministere de 
M. H. Fortoul du 2 decembre 1851 au pr juillet, 1856. Paris, 1854- 
;p56. 4 V. 

Rendu, Ambroise, Code universitaire, ou lois, statuts, et rbglements 

de I'universite royale de France, 1793-1845, mis en ordre par. Paris, 

1846. xxiv+ 1107+ xiv pp. 

Continuation of Recueil des lois, supra. Unsatisfactory as a source on ac- 
count of the form and arrangement of the material. 

Ecoles centrales, in volume entitled Instruction puhlique. Address by 
Bii^ET at opening of the school year 1798-1799, and two addresses 
by v(^RNAULT at the prize distributions of September, 1803, and 
September, 1804. 32+32+ 30 pp. 

Enquete sur I'enseignement secondaire. Paris, 1899. 6 v. 
Known as the Report of the Ribot Commission. 

Enseignement moderne. Enseignement et baccalaureat. Reforme de 1891. 
Paris, 1891. (No pagination; between 350 and 400 pp.) 

Felibien, Michel. Histoire de la ville de Paris. Revue, av^ment^e et 
mise au jour par Guy-Alexis Lobineau. Paris, 1725. 5 v. 
Two volumes of history and three of documents. 

Fleury, Abbe Claude. Traite du choix et de la methode des etudes. 
Paris, 1686. xiv+ 365 pp. 

Genie de la Revolution considers dans I'edtication, ou memoires pour 
servir A I'histoire de Vinstruction publique depuis 1798 jusqu'd nos 
jours. Par I'auteur de la Regence a Blois. Paris, 1817. 3 v. 

GoBRON, Louis. Legislation et jurisprudence de I'enseignement public 
et del' enseignement prive en France et en Algerie. Paris, 1900. vi + 
995 pp. 

HiPPEAU, C. Vinstruction publique en France pendant la Revolution. 
Discours et rapports de Mirabeau, Talleyrand-Perigord, Condorcet, 
Lanthenas, Romme, Le Peletier, Saint-Fargeau, Calhs, Lakanal 
Daunou, et Fourcroy. Paris, 1881. xxiii+ 520 pp. 

Instructions concernant les programmes de I'enseignement secondaire 
classique, suivies du rapport et de I'arrete relatifs a la discipline dans 
les etablissements d'instruction secondaire. Paris, 1901. ccxvi pp. 

Jolt, Claude. Traitt6 historique des 6coles 6piscopales et eccUsiastiques. 
Paris, 1678. 592 + pp. 

Statuts et rkglemens des petites Scales de grammaire de la ville, cit6, 
university, faux-bourgs, et banlieue de Paris; Avec quelqxies arrests 



414 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

de la cow de parlement, touchant les dites ecoles; Ensemble, les 
quartiers reglez et assignez aux maitres et maitresses d'ecoles. Paris, 
1672. 436 + pp. 

JouRDAiN, Charles. Le budget de I'insiruction publique et des etablisse- 

ments scientifiques et litteraires depuis la fondation de I'universite 

imperiale jusqu'a nos jours. Paris, 1857. iv + 340 pp. 

Histoire de I'Universite de Paris an XVIP et au XVIIP siecle. 

Paris, 1862-1866. viii + 516 + ccxciii pp. 

Continues the history of Crevier, q. v. From the reform of Henry IV. (1598- 
1600) to the suppression of the University, 1793. 

Journal de Vinstruction publique, r6dig6 par Thiebaut et Borrelly. Paris, 
1793-1795. 7 v. 

JouvENCT, Joseph. De ratione discendi et docendi. Traduction fran- 

9aise par H. Ferte : De la manibre d'apprendre et d'enseigner. Paris, 

1892. 

The original treatise, in Latin, was intended to complete the Ratio studiorum. 
It appeared anterior to 1719. 

La Chalotais, Louis Rene de Caradeuc de. Essai d'4ducation 
nationale, ou plan d'etudes pour la jeunesse. Geneve, 1763. 152 pp. 
Compte rendu des Constitutions des J esuites. Paris, 1762. 288 pp. 

Lacroix, S. F. Essais sur I'enseignement en general, et sur celui des 

mathematiqu£S en particulier. Paris, 1816, 2^ ed. vii+ 358 pp. 

Much good material on the ecoles centrales, foundation, courses, and causes of 
their failure. 

Discours sur Vinstruction publique, prononci a la distribution des 
prix des ecoles centrales du departement de la Seine, le 29 therinidor, 
an VIII (Aug. 17, 1800) ; Suivi de notes sur I'etat actuel et le regime 
des ecoles centrales. Paris, An IX. (1800.) 42 pp. 

Lakanal, J. Convention nationale: projet d' education du peuple fran- 
gais, presente a la Convention nationale au nom du Comite d'instruc- 
tion publique, le 26 juin 1793, Van II de la ripublique. ItnprimS 
par ordre de la Convention nationale. Paris, 1793. 

M^moire sur Veducation de la jeunesse par une metliode d' enseignement 
tout a fait opposie a la routine actuelle. Adresse a I'Assemblee na- 
tionale. (No author.) Paris, 1789. 29 pp. 

M^moires et documents scolaires du Mus^e p^dagogique. 

Note sur Vinstruction publique de 1789 a 1808, suivie du catalogue 
des documents originaux existant au Ministhre de Vinstruction 
publique et relatifs a Vhistoire de Vinstruction publique en France 
durant cette periode. No. 71. Paris, 1888. 40 pp. 

Schola aquitanica: Programme d'itudes du college de Guyenne au 
XVF sihcle, riimprimS avec une preface, une traduction frangaise, 
et des notes, par L. Massebieau. No. 7. 77 pp. 



APPENDIX M 415 

MiGNE. Patrologia latina. Paris, 1863. 

Volumes c and ci contain Froben's edition of Alcuin. 

MiRABEAU, Hon. Gabr. Riquetti Ct^ de. Travail sur Veducation pu- 
blique, trouve dans les papiers de Mirabeau I'aine; publi6par P.-G.- 
J.-Cabanis. Paris, 1791. 206 pp. 

Pasqtjier, EsTiENNE. Les rechcrches de la France. Paris, 1665. 910 + 
pp. 

Plan d'etudes et programmes d' enseignement dans les lycees et colleges 
de gargons. Paris, 1907-1908. xxvi+ 248 pp. 

See Instructions concernant les programmes de V enseignement secondaire clas- 
sique for detailed suggestions as to the application of these programs. 

Programmes et rkglements des etudes de la Societe de Jesus (Ratio atque 
institutio studiorum societatis Jesu), comprenant les modifications 
faites en 1832 et 1858. H. Ferte, trad. Paris, 1892. xlii+ 144 pp. 

Programs of admission conditions for the various examinations : 

Baccalaureat. (Session de 1908.) Collection Delalain, No. 1. 

Bourses de V enseignement superieur. Collection Delalain, No. 26. 

L'ecole normale superieure, et Bourses de licence. Collection De- 
lalain, No. 33. 

Licence ^s lettres, et doctoral es lettres. Collection Delalain, No. 51 
bis. 

Licence h sciences, et doctoral hs science. Collection Delalain, 
No. 13. 

Ordres d'agregation. Collection Delalain, No. 18. 

Ramus, Pierre. Avertissements sur la reformation de I'Universite de 
Paris au Roy, 1562. An undated reprint, paged 117-163. 

Ratio atque institutio studiorum societatis Jesu. Superiorum permissu. 

Tournoni, 1603. 198+ pp. 

For translation, see Programmes et rdglements des etudes de la Society de 
Jesus. 

Rever, F. Voyage des elkves du pensionnat de l'ecole centrale de I'Eure 
dans la partie occidentale du departement pendant les vacances de 
Van VIII (Sept. 1800), avec des observations, des notes, et plu^ieurs 
gravures relatives a I'histoire naturelle, V agriculture, les arts, etc. 
ifivreux. An X. viii+ 179 pp. 

RoLLAND d'Erceville. Compte rendu aux Chambres assemblees de ce 
qui a ete fait par MM. les commissaires nommes par les arrets de 6 
aout et 7 septembre 1762. Paris, 1763-1764. 2 v. 

Recueil de plu^ieurs des ouvrages de Monsieur le president Rolland, 
imprime en execution des deliberations du bureau d' administration 
du ColUge Louis-le-Grand, des 17 Janvier et 18 avril 1782. Paris, 
1783. lx+ 951 pp. 



416 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Seances et debats des ecoles normales, recueillies par des stenographes et 
revues par les professeurs. Nouvelle edition. Paris, 1800. 13 v. 

The term ecoles normales is erroneous, for there never was but one school 
established. The lectures actually delivered at the school appear in the first 
six volumes, the next four volumes containing the lectures prepared in connec- 
tion with the work of the school, but never delivered there. The last three 
volumes are composed of the discussions. 

Statistics : 

Statistique de V enseignement secondaire: 1840-1854, 1865, 1876, 

1887. 

These four reports r.re all that have appeared despite the efforts of Napoleon 
(decret 17 mars 1808) and Louis Philippe (ordonnance 3 mars 1843 ordering 
such a report to be prepared every five years). 

Statistique en 1865. Paris, 1868. clvi-|- 481 pp. 
Statistique en 1876. Paris, 1878. cxxxi+ 470 pp. 
Statistique en 1887. 1''^ partie, gargons; 2® jeunes filles. Paris, 
1889. 2 V. 
See also Ribot, Enquete, vol. III. 

Steeg (Depute). Budget general de I'exercice 1908. Rapport fait au 
nom de la commission chargee d'examiner le projet de loi portant 
fixation du budget. Paris, 1907. 439 pp. 

Talleyrand-Perigord (ancien 4veque d'Autun). Rapport sur V in- 
struction puhlique, fait au nom du Comite de constitution a I'Assemblee 
nationale, les 10, 11, et 19 septembre 1791. Paris, 1791. 196 pp. 

ViLLEMAiN. Expose dcs motifs et projet de loi sur I'instruction secondaire, 
presents a la Chambre des Pairs, le 2fevrier, 1844. Precede du rap- 
port au Roi sur I'etat de cette instruction en France, 3 mars, 1843. 
Paris, 1844. 203 pp. 

WissEMANS, A. Code de l' enseignement secondaire. Documents concer- 
nant le personnel des lycees et collies de gargons. Paris, 1906. xix + 
288 pp. 

II. HISTORICAL WORI«: SECONDARY 

d'Arvert, Franck. L'humanisme et la reforme au XV^ et XVIP 
siecle. Rev. int., X., pp. 1-38. 

Babeau, Albert. L'ecole de village pendant la revolution. Paris, 1881. 
La village sou^ I'ancien regime. 2^ ^d. Paris, 1879. 393 pp. 
La ville sous I'ancien regime. Paris, 1880. viii+ 564 pp. 

Batjdrillart, H. La famille et V education en France dans leur rap- 
ports avec I'etat de la societ6. Paris, 1874. xi+ 430 pp. 

Bayssieres, Edmond. L' enseignement secondaire fran(;ais de M. Bigot 
et V enseignement special. L'6cole de Cluny. Paris, 1886. 200 pp. 

Bersot, Ernest. Lettres sur V enseignement. Paris, 1857. 28 pp. 

Contains a very good short account of the baccalaureate from 1808 to 1857. 



APPENDIX M 417 

Bloch, G. La vie intellectuelle et morale, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, 

V. I., liv. III., ch. II., pp. 391-398. 

A good short account of the early schools of Gaul from the Christian era 
until the end of the fourth century. 

BoissiER, Gaston. La reforme des etudes au XVI® sihcle. Revue des 
Deux-Mondes, Dec, 1882, pp. 579-610. 

BouRCHEMiN, P.-Daniel. Etude sur les academies protestantes en 
France au XVP et au XVIP siMe. Paris, 1882. 480 pp. 

BuissoN, Ferdinand. Dictionnaire de pedagogic et d'instruction pri- 
maire. 2 pts. 4 v. Paris, 1880-1889. 

Cadet, Felix. L'iducation d Port-Royal. Paris, 1887. 316 pp. 

Carre, I. Les pedagogues de Port-Royal. Paris, 1887. xxxvi+348pp. 

Champion, Ed. L' instruction publique en France d'aprh les cahiers de 
'89. Rev. int., 1884, II., pp. 1-19. 

Chauvin, Victor. Histoire des lycees et colUges de Paris. Paris, 1866. 
304 pp. 

Christie, Richard Copley. Etienne Dolet, the martyr of the Renais- 
sance. A biography. Lend., 1880. xxiv+ 559 pp. 

Compatre, Gabriel. Ahelard and the origin and early history of uni- 
versities. Lond., 1893. xiii+ 315 pp. 

Histoire critique des doctrines de I'education en France depuis le 
seizihme siMe. Paris, 1880. 2™^ ^d. 2 v. 

Cormenin. L'education et enseignement en matibre d'instruction secon- 
daire. Paris, 1847. 125 pp. 

Cournot, a. a. Des institutions d'instruction publique en France. 
Paris, 1864. 

Cousin, Victor. Memoire sur I'instruction secondaire dans le royaume 
de Prusse. Paris, 1837. 195 pp. 

Contains an account of the rise of enseignement spScial in France. 

Cousin, Victor, ed. Ouvrages inedits d'Abelard, pour servir a I'histoire 
de la philosophic en France. Paris, 1836. cciii+ 681 pp. 

Cramer, Friedrich. Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unterrichts in 
den Niederlanden wahrend des Mittelalters. Stralsund, 1843. Iviii 
+ 338 pp. 

Ceevier. Histoire de VUniversitS de Paris, depuis son origine jusqu'en 
I'annee 1600. Paris, 1761. 7 v. 

This is hardly more than a reproduction of Duboullai. Continued from 
1600 to 1793 by Jourdain, q. v. 

27 



418 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Davidson, Thomas. Rousseau and education according to nature. 
Lond., 1898. vii+ 253 pp. 

Despois, Eugene. Le vandalisme revolutionnaire. Paris, 1868. viii + 
380 pp. 

DouARCHE, A. L'Universite de Paris et les Jisuites (XVI® et XVII® 
siecles). Paris, 1888. ix+ 327 pp. 

DuBARLE, Eugene. Histoire de I'Universite depuis son origine jusqu'd, 
nos jours. Paris, 1829. 2 v. 

Dubois, L'Abbe. Nouvelle question: Est-il possible d'etablir dans tous 
chef-lieux de departemeni un coUhge royal, etc. Orleans, 1818. 
64 pp. 

DuBROux, C. Un colUgien de Louis-le-Grand (1716-1722). Rev. univ., 
1906, I., pp. 316-320. 

DuHAMEL, Joseph. Le colUge de Normandie. Paris, 1901. viii+ 285 
pp. 

DuBUY, Albert. L'instruction publique et la revolution. Paris, 1882. 

il^MOND, G. Histoire du lycee Louis-le-Grand. Paris, 1845. iv+ 436 pp. 

Fischer de Chevriers, Ph. Histoire de l'instruction populaire en 
France depuis les premiers siecles jusqu'en 1789. Paris, 1884. iii 
+ 393 pp. 

France, I'ancien. L'ecole et la science jusqu'd, la renaissance. (No au- 
thor.) Paris, 1887. 330 pp. 

Gasc, p. E. Etudes historiques et critiques sur l'instruction secondaire 
considerSe dans ses rapports avec I'etat, I'universiti, le clerg6, et les 
families. Paris, 1844. xvi+ 596 pp. 

Gaskoin, C. J. B. Alcuin: His life and his work. Lond. xxii + 
275 pp. 

Gaufres, M. J. Claude Baduel et la rSforme des itudes au XVI® sibcle. 
Paris, 1880. x+ 354 pp. 

Gautier, Paul. La r6forme de I'enseignement secondaire sous le con- 
sulat. Rev. univ., II., pp. 218-230. 

Greard, Octave. Education et instruction. Enseignement secondaire. 
Paris, 1889. 2 v. 

GuiLLAUME, J. Article Convention, in Buisson, Diet, de Pedagogic, V^ 
partie, t. I., pp. 520-571, for Plans of national education pre- 
sented to the Convention nationale. 



APPENDIX M 419 

GuizoT, F. Histoire de la civilisation en France depuis la chute de 

I'empire romain. Paris, 1879. 4 v. 

See volume II. for account of Alcuin and Charlemagne; also the schools of 
Gaul from the sixth to the eighth century. 

Essai sur I'histoire et sur I'etat actuel de Vinstruction publique en 
France. Paris, 1816. 157 pp. 

Hamel, Chaeles. Histoire de I'abbaye et du college de Juilly depuis 
leurs origines ju^qu'd nos jours. Paris, 1868. 2^^ ed. xvii + 689 
pp. 

Histoire litteraire de la France. Par des religieux Benedictines de la 
congregation de S. Maur. Paris, 1866. Circa 30 v. 

Volumes IV. and V. deal with the time of Alcuin and his successors. 

HoYT, John W. The University of Paris during the Middle Ages. Rep. 
Com. Ed., 1904, I., pp. 519-558. 

Hughes, Thomas. Loyola and the educational system of the Jesuits. 
Lend., 1892. ix+ 302 pp. 

JouHDAiisr, Charles. Rapport sur V organisation et le progrh de Vin- 
struction publique. Paris, 1867. ii+ 228 pp. 
Limited practically to the period 1850-1863. 

KiLiAN, M. Tableau historique de Vinstruction secondaire en France 
depuis les temps les plus recules ju^qu'd nos jours. Paris, 1841. 
344 pp. 

KuNZ, F. X. Johan Gerson, Pddagogische Schriften, ubersetzt und mit 
biographischen Einleitung, in Bibliothek der katholischen Pada- 
gogik. Bd. XV., pp. 67-171. Freiburg, 1904. 

Lantoine, Henri. Histoire de Venseignement secondaire en France au 
XVIP siecle. Paris, 1874. xi+ 295 pp. 

Laurie, S. S. Rise and early constitutions of universities, with a survey 
of mediceval education. A. d. 1200-1350. Lond., 1886. xii + 
293 pp. 

Lavisse, Ernest. Histoire de France depuis les origines jusqu'd la 
revolution. Paris, 1900-. 7 v. (up to 1908). 

The latest and best history of France, written with many collaborators. A 
work of the same character as the Cambridge Modem History. 

Lefeuve. Histoire du College Rollin (ci-devant de Sainte-Barbe) et des 
pension, communaute, et colUge, qui constituent son origine. Paris, 
1853. 412 pp. 

Lefranc, Abel. Histoire du Collhge de France, depuis ses origines 
jusqu'd la fin du premier empire. Paris, 1893. 

Lemonnier, Henry. Renaissance en France, in Lavisse, Histoire de 
France, v. V., liv. II., ch. II., pp. 149-184. Paris, 1903. 



420 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Le Ragois (Pr^cepteur de Monsieur le Due du Maine). Instruction sur 

I'histoire de France et Romaine. Nouvelle Edition, Paris, 1777. 

xvi+ 252+ 236 pp. 

This text-book was first published about 1684. It went through innumera- 
ble editions, appearing in a two-volume revision as late as 1820. Most of it was 
in catechetical form, " in order not to overcharge the memory of the reader." 

LiAKD, Louis. L'enseignement superieur en France. 1789-1893. Paris, 
1888, 1894. 2 v. 

Les universites frangaises, in English Board of Education, Special 
Reports on Educational Subjects. II., pp. 574-602. English 
translation by J. W. Longsdon, ibid., pp. 603-625. Lond., 1898. 

LoRENZ. Alcidns Leben. Halle, 1829. English translation by Jane 
Mary Slee, Lond., 1837. 

LucHAiRE, A. L'enseignement, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, v. II., 
pt. 2, liv. I., pp. 184-192. Paris, 1901. 

An account of the schools of France about the year 1000. 

Maitre, Leon. Les ecoles ipiscopales et monastiques de I'occident, de- 
puis Charlemagne jusqu'd Philippe Auguste (768-1180). Paris, 
1866. 

L' instruction publique dans les villes et les campagnes du comte 
Nantais avant 1789. Nantes, 1882. 

Mathias, M. De l'enseignement public. Paris, 1776. xvi+ 125 pp. 

MiCHAUD, L'Abbe E. Gruillaume de Champeaux et les Ecoles de Paris au 
XIP sikcle, d'aprh des documents inedils. Paris, 1867. iii-f- 547 pp. 

MoNNiER, Francis. Alcuin et Charlemagne, avec des fragments d'un 
commentaire inedit d' Alcuin sur Saint Matthieu, et d'autres pieces 
publiies pour la premihre fois. Paris, 1864. 2°^^ ^d. iv-|- 376 pp. 

MoNOD, Bernard. La pMagogie et I'Miication au moyen age, d'aprks 
les souvenirs d'un mx}ine du XP sihcle. Rev. univ., 1904, I., pp. 
25-36. 

MoNTEiL, Amans-Alexis. Histoirc des Frangais des divers dats, ou 
Histoire de France aux cinq derniers sitclcs. Paris, 1847. 3™® 6d. 
5 V. 

Mullinger, J. B. The schools of Charles the Great and the restoration of 
education in the 9th century. Lond., 1877. xx-|- 193 pp. 

Muteau, Charles. Les Scales et colUges en province depuis les temps 
les plus recvlSs ju^qu'en 1789. Dijon, 1882. xlv+ 601 pp. 

Perratjd, Adolphe. L'Oratoire de France au XVIP et au XIX^ 
sibcle. Paris, 1865. xv-f- 521 pp. 

PiCAVET, Fran<70is. Les idiologues. Essai sur I'histoire des idtes et 
des tMories sdentifiques, philosophiques, religeuses, etc., en France 
depuis 1789. Paris, 1891. xii+ 628 pp. 



APPENDIX M 421 

Prat, J. M. (le Pere). Maldonat et I'Universite de Paris au XVI^ 
si^cle. Paris, 1856. vi+ 637 pp. 

QuiCHERAT, Jules. Histoire de Sainte-Barbe, colUge, communaute, 
institution. Paris, 1860-1864. 3 v. 

Rashdall, H. The universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Oxford, 
1895. 2 V. 

DE RiANCEY, Henry. Histoire critique et legislation de VinstructiGn 
publique et de la liberie de I'enseignement en France. Paris, 1844. 2 v. 

RoLLiN. De la maniere d'enseigner et d'etudier les belles lettres, par 

rapport a V esprit et au coeur. Paris, 1786. 4 v. 

Commonly known as Traite des etudes. This is only one of the numerous 
editions through which this worls has passed. 

Sainte-Beuve. Histoire de Port-Royal. Paris, 1871. 6 v. 

Volume III., pp. 405-589, and volume IV., pp. 1-105, contain the account 
of the " little schools." 

DE Saint-Priest, Cte Alexis. Histoire de la chute des Jesuites au 
XVIIP siecle (1752-1782). Paris, 1844. xvii+ 372 pp. 

Schmidt, Charles. La vie de Jean Sturm. Strasbourg, 1855. viii+ 
335 pp. 

Silvy, a. Essai d'une bibliographie historique de I'enseignement secon- 
daire et superieur en France avant la revolution. Paris, n. d. 149 pp. 
This work is carried down to 1892. 

Simon, Jules. La reforme de I'enseignement secondaire. Paris, 1874. 
432 pp. 

Steeg, Jules. Lycees et colleges, in Buisson, Dictionnaire de pedagogic. 
pe partie, t. 2, pp. 1739-1752. 

Thery, a. F. Histoire de I'education en France depuis le V^ siecle 
jusqu'a nos jours. Paris, 1861. 2 v. 

Thurot, Charles. De V organisation de I'enseignement dans I'Univer- 
site de Paris au moyen age. Paris, 1850. 213+ pp. 

Troplong. Du pouvoir de I'etat sur I'enseignement d'aprh I'ancien 
droit frangais. Paris, 1844. 319 pp. 
Carried down through 1762. 

Vallet de Viriville. Histoire de V instruction publique en Europe, et 
principalement en France, depuis le Christianisme jusqu'd, nos jours. 
Paris, 1849. iv+ 400 pp. 

Waddington, Charles. Ramv^ {Pierre la Ramee). Sa vie, ses Merits, 
ses opinions. Paris, 1855. 480 pp. 



422 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

West, Andrew Fleming. Alcuin and the rise of the Christian schools. 
Lond., 1893. x+ 205 pp. 

Woodward, William Harrison. Desideriiis Erasmus concerning the 
aim and method of education. Cambridge, 1904. xvii+ 244 pp. 



III. GENERAL AUTHORITIES: SECONDARY 

Annuaire de la jeunesse. Vuibert et Nony, ^diteurs. 

Annual publication containing much general, though unofficial, information 
about France educationally. 

Arnold, Matthew. A French Eton, or middle class education and the 
state. Lend., 1864. 

Baccalaureat, Pour et contre le. (No author.) Rev. int., 1907, II., pp. 
218-229. 

Bornecque, Henri. Avons-nou^ quelque chose a prendre a I'enseigne- 
ment anglais? Rev. univ., 1902, II., pp. 221-231. 

Breal, Michel. Quelques mots sur I'instruction publique en France. 
Paris, 1873. 410 pp. 

Briand, Aristide. Separation des eglises et de I'etat. Rapport officiel. 
Paris, 1905. 340 pp. 

Chabot, Charles. Contemporary educational thought in France. Ed. 
Rev., XXXVI., pp. 43-54. 

Compayre, Gabriel. Public instruction in France in 1906. Elem. 
Sch. Teach., VII., pp. 369-378. 

Recent educational progress in France. Ed. Rev., XXVII., pp. 
19-35. 

Reform in secondary education in France. Ed. Rev., XXV., pp. 
130-145. 

Croiset, Alfred. L'enseignement classique et I'enseignenient moderne. 
Paris, 1898. 9 pp. 

Crouzet, Paul. Pourquoi nous co6p6rons mal avec les parents. Rev. 
univ., 1905, II., pp. 199-214; 290-307. 

Demolins, Edmond. a quoi tient la supirioriie des Anglo-Saxons? 
Paris, 1897. 2me 6d. xxxii+ 410 pp. 

L'ecole des Roches. Elem. Sch. Teach., VI., pp. 227-240. 
U education nouvelle. L'ecole des Roches. Paris, 1S99. xii+ 320 
pp. 

Fortier, Alcee. Education in France. Rep. Com. Ed., lS95-'96, I., 
pp. 635-639. 



APPENDIX M 423 

FouiLLEE, Alfred. La France au point de vue morale. Paris, 1900. 
L' enseignement au point de vue nationale. Paris, 1891. xviii + 
451 pp. 

Friedel, Victor H. Problems of secondary education in France. Sch. 
Rev., XV., pp. 169-183. 

GiRARD, Raymond de. Questions d' enseignement secondaire. Paris, 

1905. 2 V. 

GoujoN, Henri. L' administration des colleges. Paris, n. d. 

Hardy, E. L. The lycees of France. Sch. Rev., VII., pp. 549-559; 
VIII., pp. 18-25; IX., pp. 459-475. 

Hughes, R. E. The making of citizens. Lend., 1900. vi+ 405 pp. 

Jonas, J. B. E. The secondary curriculum in France. Sch. Rev., VIII., 
pp. 244-253. 

KiRKMAN, F. B. Position of teachers in the state secondary schools for 
boys in France. EngHsh Board of Education, Special Reports 
on Educational Subjects. 1898. v. II., pp. 626-633. 

Langlois, Ch. V. La question de V enseignement secondaire en France 
et a I'etranger. Paris, 1900. 137 pp. 

Lanson, Gustave. L' enseignement secondaire, in Enseignement et 
democratic, pp. 181-207. Paris, 1905. 

L'universite et la societe moderne. Paris, 1902. xi+ 122 pp. 

Marion, Henri. U education dans l'universite. Paris, 1892. xxxiii + 
400 pp. 

Sabatier, Paul. A propos de separation des eglises et de I'etat. Paris, 

1906. 6™e ^d. lxxxiv+ 216 pp. 

Sadler, M. E. The unrest in secondary education in Germany and else- 
where. English Board of Education, Special Reports on Educa- 
tional Subjects. Lond., 1902. IX., pp. 1-191. 

United States Bureau of Education. Report of the Commissioner of 
Education. 1890-91. v. I., pp. 109-124. Program of 1890-91. 
1895-96. V. I., pp. 635-639. 
1898-99. V. I., pp. 1106-1138. Extracts from Ribot, Enquite. 

1901. V. I., pp. 1103-1109. 

1902. V. I., pp. 685-698. Program of 1902. 

1905. V. I., pp. 76-80. 

1906. V. I., pp. 30-32. See pp. 19-26 for good short account 
of the " law of separation." 

1907. V. I., pp. 143-157. 

1908. V. I., pp. 230-238. 

VuiBERT, H. La reforme de V enseignement secondaire expliquie aux 
families. Paris, 1902. 47 pp. 



424 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

IV. SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION 

A. French and the Classics 

Andre, C. Dans quelle mesure se sert-on encore du latin? Rev. int., I., 
pp. 503-512. 

BoRNECQUE, Henry. Comment rendre nos elhves plus forts en grec et 
en latin? Rev. univ., 1904, II., pp. 20^214. 

BouRGiN, Hubert. L' explication des textes, " exercice principal." 
Rev. univ., 1906, II., pp. 293-298. 

Simples notes sur la translation or ale des textes latins. Rev. 
univ., 1907, I., pp. 228-238. 

Brelet, H. L' enseignement grammatical dans V enseignement secondaire. 
Paris, 1897. 

Croiset, M. L' enseignement du grec dans les lycees et colleges. Rev. 
int., 1903, II., pp. 19-28. 

Frary, Raoul. La question du latin. Paris, 1885. 323 pp. 

Hartog, P. J. Teaching the mother tongue in France. Ed. Rev., XXXV., 
pp. 331-350. 

Hauvette, Amedee. De I'etvde du grec dans V enseignement secondaire. 
Ohjet et methode. Rev. int., 1903, I., pp. 385-407. 

Henry, V., F. Brunot, H. Goelzer, L. Sudre, Ch. Maquet. L'en- 
seignement de la grammaire. Conferences du Mus^e p6dagogique, 
1906. Paris, 1906. 185 pp. 

Lavaud, Rene. Une petite reforme pMagogique: V enseignement de la 
syntaxe latine et la question du mot a mot. Rev. univ., 1904, II., 
pp. 93-107. 

Levy-Wogue, F. Une experience de methode directe dans V enseignement 
du latin. Rev. int., 1903, I., pp. 439-441. 

Mac6, Alcide. La prononciation internationale du latin au XX^ sik^le. 
Roma, 1905. 11 pp. 

Seure, Georges. Professeurs sp^daux de grec. Rev. univ., 1905, I., 
pp. 104-113. 

Vessiot, a. La question du latin de M. Frary et les professions UMrales. 
Paris, 1886. 2"^^ 6d. 71 pp. 



APPENDIX M 425 



B. History and Geography 

BussoN, Henri. Quelques mots sur I'enseignement de Vhistoire parti- 
cvlih-ement dans le premier cycle. Rev. univ., 1905, I., pp. 26-34. 

CousTEL, Pierre. Les regies de Veducation des enfants, ou il est parle 
en detail de la maniere dont il se faut conduire, pour leur inspirer 
les sentiments d'une solide piete ; et pour leur apprendre parfaitement 
les belles lettres. Paris, 1687. 2 v. 

DuTiL, Leon. A propos de geographie. Rev. univ., 1906, I., pp. 306- 
315. 

Sur I'enseignement de la geographie. Rev. univ., 1903, I., pp. 
249-251. 

La Mothe le Vayer, Francois de. La geographie du prince. Paris, 
1651. ix+ 346 pp. 

Langlois, Ch. v. Agregation d'histoire et de geographie, concours de 
1907. Rev. univ., 1907, II., pp. 277-296. 

Machat, J. La classe d'une heure en geographie. Rev. univ., 1906, II., 
pp. 93-101. 

Methode ahregee et facile pour apprendre la geographie, ou Von decrit la 
forme du gouvernement de chaque pays, ses qualites, les mceurs de 
ses habitants, et ce qu'il y ade plus remarguable. Par A. L. F. Paris, 
1772. x+516pp. 

Rosenthal, Leon. Note sur I'enseignement de Vhistoire. Rev. univ., 
1902, I., pp. 44-45. 

Seignobos, Ch., Ch. V. Langlois, L. Gallouedec, M. Tourneur. 
L' enseignement de Vhistoire. Conferences du Mus^e p^dagogique, 
1907. Paris, 1907. 185 pp. 

ViDAL de la Blache, L. Gallois, p. Dupuy. L' enseignement de la 
geographie. Conferences du Mus4e p^dagogique, 1905, pp. 115-211, 

ViDAL DE LA Blache. Lcs rapports de la geographie avec la sociologie. 
Rev. univ., 1904, II., pp. 123-125. 

Weill, Georges. L' application des nouveaux programmes d'histoire; 
d propos d'un ouvrage recent. Rev. univ., 1906, I., pp. 106-116. 



C. Mathematics and Science 

AscoLi, Marcel. Les sciences mathematiques dans V enseignement 
secondaire, d'aprks les conferences du Musee pedagogique, in Revue 
g^n^rale des sciences pures et appliqu6es, 30 mai, 1904, pp. 496-505. 



426 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

BouASSE, H. L'enseignement des sciences physiques dans V enseignement 
secondaire. Paris, 1901. 24 pp. 

Reprint from Journal de l'enseignement secondaire. 

Hadamaed, Jacques. Les sciences dans l'enseignement secondaire, in 
L'education et la democratie, pp. 223-251. Paris, 1903. 

Laisant, C. a. L'education fondee sur la science. Paris, 1904. xlv + 
153 pp. 

Le Dantec, Mangin, Pechoutre, Caustier, Vidal de la Blache, 
Gallois, Dupuy. L'enseignement des sciences naturelles et de la 
geographic. Conferences du Musee p^dagogique, 1905. 211 pp. 

LlARD, L., H. PoiNCAEE, G. LiPFMANN, L. PoiNCARE, P. LaNGEVIN, 

E. BoREL, F. Marotte. L'enseignement des sciences mathematiques 
et les sciences physiques. Conferences du Musee p^dagogique, 1904. 
Paris, 1904. xiv+ 179 pp. 



D. Modern Languages 

Abry, E. Lefrangais et les langues vivantes. Rev. univ., 1907, I., pp. 
428-433. 

BouRGOGNE, L. Les mithodes pour l'enseignement des langv^s vivantes. 
Revue p^dagogique, 1907, I., pp. 16-28. 

Breal, Michel. De l'enseignement des langues vivantes: conferences 
faites aux etudiants en lettres de la Sorbonne. Paris, 1893. 147 pp. 

David, Henry C. E. Direct method in the French secondary school. 
Sch. Rev., XVI., pp. 123-125. 

Firmery, J. L'enseignement des langues vivantes, d'aprh les nouveaux 
programmes. Rev. univ., 1902, II., pp. 329-350; 446-454. 

Francois, A. La conversation et la lecture dans I'itude des langues 
vivantes. Rev. univ., 1902, I., p. 46. 

GuYTON DE MoRVEAU. M^moire sur l'education publique, avec le pro- 
spectus d'un colUge, suivant les principes de cet ouvrage. Paris, 1764. 
324 pp. 

Hankin, Gerald T. Les assistants Grangers dans nos classes de langues 
vivantes. Revue p6dagogique, 1906, II., pp. 558-562. 

Lancelot, Claude. Nouvelle m6thode pour apprendre facilement et en 
peu de temps la langue espagnole. Paris, 1675. 2™^ ed. 116 pp. 

Nouvelle mMhode pour apprendre facilement et en peu de temps la 
langue italienne. Paris, 1674. 2™^ ^d. 120 pp. 

Laudenbach, H. Etude d'un texte de langue vivante dans les classes de 
grammaire. Rev. univ., 1902, II., pp. 147-160. 



APPENDIX M 427 

Lecoq, J. L'enseignement vivant des langties vivantes. Paris, 1903. 
105 pp. 

Rapport d'un inspecteur general. Situation de l'enseignement des 
langues vivantes dans l'enseignement secondaire en 1905-1906. Rev. 
univ., 1907, II., pp. 93-109. 

Schweitzer, Charles. La mSthode directe et la lecture des auteurs. 
Rev. univ., 1904, II., pp. 322-330. 

Methodologie des langues vivantes. Notes prises aux conferences 
faites a la Sorbonne. Rev. uaiv., 1903, I., pp. 462-469; II., pp. 
1-10; 105-115. 

SiGWALT, Ch. De l'enseignement des langu£s vivantes. Idees d'un vieux 
professeur dediees aux jeunes. Paris, 1906. xiii + 288 pp. 

Varenne, Gaston. Le role de la grammaire dans l'enseignement des 
langues vivantes. Rev. univ., 1905, I., pp. 12-25. 

See also the volumes of these periodicals, primarily devoted to modern 
languages : 

Les Langues Modernes. Bulletin mensuel de la Societe des Pro- 
fesseurs des Langues Vivantes de I'Enseignement Public. Paris, 
1903-. 

Revue de I'Enseignement des Langues Vivantes. Paris, 1884-. 

E. Other Subjects of Instruction 

Catalogue du material d'enseignement du dessin dans les lycees et colUges. 

Instructions relatives a cet enseignement, 1906. Bull, adm., 1906, 

II., pp. 1138-1163. 

These instructions are mainly a reproduction of those Ksued, July 15, 1890, 
though with some modifications. 

Pillet, J. J. L'enseignement general du dessin dans les lycees et colUges 

de France. Paris, 1899. 
RouBAUDi, C. Le dessin graphique dans l'enseignement secondaire. 

Paris, 1905. 

Demeny, Georges. Guide de maitre charge de l'enseignement des exer- 
cices physiques dans les ecoles publiques et privees. Paris, 1900. 
2™e ed. 167 pp. 

Manuel d'exercices gymnastiques et de jeux scolaires. Paris, 1891. 
xviii+ 276 pp. 

Official publication of the Ministry of Public Instruction. 

Darbon, a. L'enseignement de la morale au lycee. (Rapport pr&ent^ 
au conseil academique de Montpellier.) Rev. univ., 1907, I., 
pp. 413-423; II., pp. 11-25. 

U education morale dans V university {enseignement secondaire). 
Conferences et discussions pr4sid6es par M. Alfred Croiset. Paris, 
1901. xii+ 241 pp. 



428 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Affre, Mgr. (I'archeveque de Paris). Memoire sur Venseignement 
pMlosophique adresse a la Chambre des Pairs. Paris, 1844. 40 pp. 

Belot, Gustave. La nouvelle situation des classes de philosophic. Rev. 
univ., 1902, II., pp. 351-366. 

Garnier, Adolfhe. Reponse au Memoire de M. I'Archeveque de Paris, 
sur Venseignement pMlosophique. Paris, 1844. 22 pp. 

GoBLOT, Edmond. Sur Venseignement pMlosophique en mathimatiques 
iUmentaires. Rev. univ., 1907, II., pp. 388-406. 

PuJO, Maurice. Contre la classe de pMlosophie de Venseignement sec- 
ondaire. Lettre ouverte a M. Jules Lemaitre. Paris, 1899. 29 pp. 

Vanderem, F., Th. Ribot, E. Boutroux, P. Janet et A. Fouillee, 
G. MoNOD, G. Lacaze, H. Marion, G. Lyon, L. Marillier, Abbe 
Clamadieu, J. Bourdeau, H. Taine. Pour et contre Venseigne- 
ment pMlosophique. Extrait de la Revue Bleue. Paris, 1894. 
178 pp. 

V. EDUCATION OF GIRLS 

Appell, Paul. Voeu depose hors session relatif a Venseignement secon- 
daire des jeunes Jilles. Rev. int., 1906, II., pp. 210-212. 

Association pour Venseignement secondaire des Jilles. Programme des 
cours de la Sorbonne, 1868. Paris, 1868. 15 pp. 

Bachellery, Josephine. Lettres sur Veducation des femmes. Paris, 
1848. vii+ 237 pp. 

Campan, Mme. De Veducation, suivi des conseils aux jeunes Jilles, d'un 
theatre pour les jeunes personnes, et de quelques essais de morale. 
Paris, 1824. 2 v. 

Lettres de deux jeunes amies, ilh}es d'Ecouen. Paris, 1824. 194 
pp. 

DuGARD, M. Secondary education of girls in France. Proc. Nat. Ed. 
Assoc, 1893, pp. 211-216. 

DuRUY, V. Enseignement secondaire des Jilles. Instructions aux rec- 
teurs, 30 octobre 1867. Circulaires et instructions officielles, pp. 
545-548. 

Gonnet, a. Le diplome dejin d'6tudes dans les lycees et colleges de jeunes 
Jilles. Rev. univ., 1905, II., pp. 1-18. 

Guerlac, Othon. Education of women in France. Ed. Rev., XXXV., 
pp. 272-284. 

Levasseur, Emile. Association pour Venseignement secondaire des 
jeunes Jilles (1902-1903). Ouverture des cours dans Vatnphith^dtre 
de chimie d la Sorbonne, le 15 novembre 1902. Paris, 1902. 10 pp. 



APPENDIX M 429 

Lycees de jeunes filles. 25 ans de discours, avec une preface par Mak- 
CELiN Berthelot. Paris, 1907. xi+ 351 pp. 

Marion, Henri. L' education des jeunes filles. Paris, 1902. x+ 380 
pp. 

L'education des jeunes filles. Extraits de la livre sur Etudes de 
psychologie feminine. Rev. univ., 1902, I., pp. 231-249. 

Moll- Weiss, Augusta. Les internals de jeunes filles dans I'avenir. 
Rev. univ., 1902, II., pp. 232-240. 

Plan d'etudes et programmes de V enseignement secondaire des jeunes 
filles. Arr^t6 du 27 juillet, 1897. Paris, 1908. lvi+ 96 pp. 

Port-Royal du S. Sacrement, Les constUuiions du monasthe de. Mens, 
1665. 1+274 pp. 

Programs of admission conditions for the various examinations : 

Concours d'agregation et certificais d'aptitvde d, V enseignement 
secondaire. Collection Delalain, No. 12. 

L'ecole normale secondaire de Sevres, 1908. No. 63. 

R^lements et arretes concernant les maisons d'education de filles. Extrait 
du Recueil des actes administratifs, prefecture du departement de la 
Seine, pp. 479-498. Paris, 1844. 

Romieu, Mme. Marie. (Marie Sincere, pseud.) Les pensionnats de 
jeunes filles. Paris, 1854. 2™® M. 94 pp. 

See, Camille. Lycees et colUges de jeunes filles. Documents, rapports, 
et discours. Decrets, arretes, drcvlaires, etc. Paris, 1900. 7™® 6d. 
xli+ 1317 pp. 

Vingt-cinquihme anniversaire de la criation des lycees de jeunes filles, in 
L'enseignement secondaire des jeunes filles, 1907, I., pp. 241-335. 

See also these periodicals : 

L'enseignement secondaire des jeunes filles. Revue mensuelle, 
fondle et dirigee par Camille S4e. Paris, 1882-. 

Revue de l'enseignement des femmes. Paris, 1845-1848. 



VI. TRAINING OF TEACHERS 

Chabot, Charles. Professional training of teachers in France. See 
Congress of Arts and Sciences, Universal Exposition, St. Louis, 
1904. VIII., pp. 176-191. 

Cledat, L. Les nouvelles icoles normales. Rev. int., 1907, 1., pp. 157- 
161. 

La reforme de l'ecole normale sup^rieure et les universit4s de pro- 
vince. Rev. int., 1906, I., pp. 46-60. 



430 FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

DuGARD, M. De la formation des maUres de l' enseignement secondaire 
en France et a I'etranger. Paris, 1902. x+ 242 pp. 

DuPUY, Paul. Le centenaire de I'ecole normale (1795-1895). Paris, 
1895. xlviii+ 699 pp. 

L'ecole normale. A propos de I'ecole normale et de la reorganisation des 
facultes de province. Par un eleve de I'ecole normale sup^rieure. 
Rev. int., 1907, I., pp. 230-240. 

I!cole normale superieure. Seance du mercredi 23 novembre 1904. Rev. 
int., 1904, II., pp. 481-495. 

GiRARD, Paul. L' enseignement pedagogique & I'ecole normale superieure. 
Rev. univ., 1903, II., pp. 205-217. 

KiRKMAN, F. B. Position of teachers in the state secondary schools for 
boys in France. English Board of Education, Special Reports on 
Educational Subjects. II., pp. 626-633. 

Langlois, Ch. V. La preparation & I' enseignement secondaire, au 
Musee pedagogique. Rev. pedagogique, 1905, II., pp. 505-517. 

La preparation professionnelle d V enseignement secondaire. Paris, 
1902. 223 pp. 

Lanson, Gust AVE. La reorganisation de I'ecole normale. Rev. de 
Paris, 1903, VI., pp. 520-536. 

Lyon, Georges. La pedagogie et I'ecole normale en 1902. Introduction 
a Enseignement et religion, etudes philosophiques. Paris, 1907. 
239 pp. 

Masse. La riforme de I'ecole normale. Rapport du budget de I'instruc- 
tion publique, 1905, pp. 119-127. 

MoNOD, Gabriel. La pedagogie historique d I'icole normale superieure 
en 1888. Rev. int., 1907, II., pp. 199-207. 

Perrot, Georges. La pedagogie d, I'ecole normale, 1902-1903. Rev. 
int., 1902, II., pp. 516-523. 

PiCAVET, FRAN901S. Reforme des agregations. Rev. int., 1904, II., 
pp. 10-26. 

Salmon, Lucy M. Training of teachers in France. Ed. Rev., XIX., 
pp. 383-404. 

Seignobos, Charles. La preparation pedagogique des professeurs de 
V enseignement secondaire. Rev. univ., 1902, II., pp. 455-462. 

Tannery, Jules. L' enseignement pedagogique d, I'ecole normale su- 
perieure. Rev. int., 1902, I., pp. 304-314. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



The following abbreviations are used in this index : dip., diploma; 
exam., examination; exams., examinations ; norm., normal; s., school; 
ss., schools. The significance of the other abbreviations will be readily 
apparent. 



Aachen, palace s. at, 2, 4. 

Abbotsholme, 380. 

Abelard, 17 ff., 378; forerunner of 

the University of Paris, 18. 
Absence, leave of, 162-163. 
Academic council, fimction of, 

127 n. 
Academy, 85 ff. 
Academy inspector, 121, 375. 
Administration, educational, 85 ff . ; 

political, 85; school, chap. 

v., passim. 
Admission requirements, lycee, 

161-162. 
.(Elbert, archbishop of York, 1. 
.iEschylus, study of, in girls' ss. 

325, 326. 
Agregation, 109, 116, 118, 119, 

346, 348, 349, 351 ff., 365, 

367 ff., 375 f.; dip., 375; 

exams., 371-373; in girls' ss., 

331-332, 333, 337, 340, 342; 

exam., 342-343. 
Agregation, orders of, 351, 369, 

371. 
Agrege, 105, 108-109, 115, 332, 

336 f., 347, 371 ff., 376 f. 
Agreges, prerogatives of, 373. 
Aguesseau (d'). Instructions d mes 

enfants, study of Spanish and 

Italian in, 214. 
Alcoholism, instruction against, 

291 n. 
Alcuin, abbat of Tours, 5, 10-11; 

master of the palace s. at 

Aachen, 2, 4; meeting with 

Charles the Great, 1 ; quoted, 

5 ; reforms at Tours, 1 1 ; 

scholasticus at York, 2, 4. 



Alexander IV., bulls of, 25; pro- 
tects the theological faculty, 
22. 

Algebra, instruction in, methods, 
270-271. See also Mathe- 
matics. 

Allowance, pupil's, 184-185. 

Amalric, archbishop, 11. 

American authors, neglected in 
modern language reading, 
224. 

Appell, M., dean of the faculty of 
science at the University of 
Paris, resolutions of, 321 n. 

Arabic, in entrance exams, for 
norm, s., 356 f . ; instruction 
in, among ss. in Africa, 213. 

Archeology, in exam, for dip. of 
higher study, 366. 

Aristotle, study of, in arts faculty, 
Ethics, Metaphysics, Natural 
philosophy, 24; in Jesuit ss., 
257, _289._ 

Arithmetic, in early ss., 8; in 
grammar ss., 28; subject of 
instruction in capitulary of 
789, 9; teachers of, brought 
from Rome, 8. 

Amauld, study plan, 238. 

Arret^s, defined, 90. 

Art, history of, study of, at 
Sevres, 340. 

Arts and sciences, parity between, 
in program of 1902, 78. 

Arts faculty, 22 ff., 29. 

Arts, seven liberal, studied in 
palace s., 5. 

Ascham, 38. 

Assemblies, national, work of, 59 ff. 



28 



434 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Assembly hall, absence of, 155. 

Assembly, legislative, contrasted 
with the Convention, 61 ff. 

Association for girls' secondary 
education, 314. 

Astronomy, study of, in Napo- 
leon's course, 260. 

Athletics, 158-159; increased in- 
terest in, 386; lack of in- 
terest in, 308. 

Attendance, school, growth of, 
69-70. 

Authors, in master's exam., letters, 
363 n., 364 n. 

Authors read, English, 220-223; 
French, 191-199; German, 
221-223, 236; Greek, 191- 
199; Italian, 221-223; Latin, 
191-199; Russian, 221; Span- 
ish, 221-223. 

Auxerre, first girls' communal col- 
lege at, 317; lyc6e at, 330- 
331. 

Baccalaureate, 71, 123-124, 126, 
138, 191, 262, 348, 363; 
courses leading to, 191 ; es- 
tablished, 24-25; exam, 
boards for, 142, 144; of 
"special" instruction, 78; 
open to girls, 321; relative 
worth of, 141-142; required 
for entrance to higher ss., 
148; requirements for, in 
1600, 45-46. 
Examinations, 139, 142-146; 
fees, 145; oral, 144-145; re- 
sults of, 146; subjects of, 
143; worth, 145; written, 
144. 

Bachelor's degree, 75 f., 125; 
exam., 347 f., 375. See also 
Baccalaureate. 

Basedow, influence of, 346. 

Bathing facilities, bovs' ss., 157; 
girls' ss., 319-320'. 

Bee, a center of learning, 17. 

Belugou, Mile., directress of the 
norm. s. at Sevres, 336. 

Benedictine rule, at Tours, 10; in 
monastic ss., 14. 

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, teacher 
in norm. s. of the Convention, 
62-63. 



Berthollet, teacher in norm. s. of 
the Convention, 62. 

Besangon, central s. at, 66. 

Bibliography, in exam, for dip. of 
higher study, 366. 

Bifurcation, in lycee course, 74 ff., 
262. 

Biology, study of, in 1814, 261. 
See also Natural history. 

Bishops' petition, 829, 14. 

Blackboards, 154-155. 

Boethius, Topics in arts faculty, 
24; version of, for Aristotle, 
24. 

Books, early, 13; furnished free 
to boarders and to half 
boarders, 164-166. 

Bordeaux, early municipal s. at, 2. 

Botany, in master's exam., 364. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333; in 
1814, 261. See also Natural 
history. 

Bourges, archbishop of, chairman 
of reform body for the uni- 
versity, 43. 

Br^al, M., quoted, 88-89. 

Brest, girls' lyc^e at, 326. 

Brevet elementaire. See Diploma, 
elementary. 

Brevet sup^rieur. See Diploma, 
higher. 

Britain, early, learning in, 3. 

Budseus, revives the study of 
Greek, 34-35. 

Budget, 82-83, 96, 382-383. 

Buff on, lycee, 151. 

Buildings, school, 151-158. 

Buisson, F., quoted, 38; Reper- 
toire des ouvrages pedago- 
giques du XVI' siecle, 37. 

Bureaus, ministry of public in- 
struction, 90-91. 

Bursar, 105, 108. 



Cahiers de 1789, modern language 

instruction demanded by, 

216. 
"Caiman," 361. 
Calculus, study of, in Napoleon's 

course, 260. 
Calendar, school. See School year. 
Campan, Mme., on the education 

of girls, 309-310, 311-312. 



INDEX 



435 



Capitulary, Charles's great, 6; 
text, 7-8. 

Capitulary of Theodulphus, 797, 9. 

Carlyle, quoted, 60. 

Carnot, lycee, 151. 

Cartesianism, 289. 

Cathedral, grammar ss. of, 49-50. 

Cathedral school at Paris, 17, 27 f . 

Cathedral schools, 13, 16, 27. 

Censeur. See Censor. 

Censor, 70, 105, 107-108, 180; 
salary, 116-117. 

Centralization, 84-85 ; educational, 
of Napoleon, 67; of the ss., 
effect of, 101. 

Central school of arts and manu- 
factures, 147, 148. 

Central schools of the Convention, 
63-66, 76, 188; contrasted 
with those of the old regime, 
65-66; neglect of the ver- 
nacular in, 207. 

Certificat d'aptitude p^dagogique. 
See Certificate of teaching 
ability. 

Certificate, leaving, 126; of com- 
petency in elementary classes, 
374; in modern languages, 
373-374; of secondary study 
in girls' ss., 320; of teaching 
ability, 115. 

Certificates, drawing teachers, 
375; gymnastic teachers, 
375; teaching, 109; for girls' 
secondary ss., 339-340. 

Certification of teachers, 29. 

Chancellor of the cathedral, Paris, 
21, 25, 27; of Sainte-Gene- 
vieve, 25. 

Chantre, grand. See Precentor. 

Chaplain, in lycees, 70. 

Chaptal, college, 151. 

Characteristics, French and Anglo- 
Saxon, 3S0. 

Charlemagne, lycee, 150, 155. 

Charles the Bald, 11. 

Charles the Great, meets Alcuin, 
1 ; his learning, 2 ; issues his 
great capitulary, 787, 6. 

Charles Martel, distributes the 
monasteries, 2. 

Charles VII., 43. 

Charles VIII., brings the Renais- 
sance to France, 32. 



Chaumie, M., quoted, 387. 

Chemistry, chap. XII., passim; 
laboratory work, 285-286. 
Examination, for agregation, 
343, 372 ; for master's degree, 
364; for norm, s., 357 f. ; for 
Sevres, 334. 
Study of, 136; at Sevres, 333; 
in central ss., 64; in 1814, 
261; in girls' ss., 314; in 
Napoleon's course, 260. 

Chronology, study of, in lycees, 
68. 

Church and state, 69, 73-74, 378. 

Church attendance, opportunity 
for, 177. 

Church control of girls' education, 
309. 

Cicero, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44; neg- 
lected in Middle Ages, 34. 

Classicism, loses ground, 75; re- 
volt against, 259. 

Classics, diversity of program, 
200-201 ; efforts to save, 190- 
191; evolution of, 123-125; 
in master's exam., 363; in- 
struction in, chap. IX., pas- 
sim; method of study, 200- 
206; reform of, 78-79; time 
allowance for, 199-200. See 
also Greek, Latin. 
Study of, in program of 1902, 
191-206. 

Class names, modification of, 86. 

Class room, appearance and equip- 
ment, 154 ff. 

Clement of Ireland, Alcuin's suc- 
cessor, 2, 12. 

Clermont, CoUege of, 41 ff., 49, 72. 

Clubs, modern language, 229-230. 

Cluny normal school, 77, 115. 

Coat rooms, absence of, 155. 

College, 27; function of, 89; re- 
lation to lycee, 152. 

College de France. See College of 
France. 

College d'Harcourt, 27. 

College of France, 33, 38, 346. 

College royal. See College of 
France. 

Colleges and lycees, comparison, 
103-104, 114. 

Colleges, basis of education in, 



436 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



70; early, 26; for girls, 81, 
315 ff.; inspection of, 29; 
reassume the name lycees, 
74; of the university in 1594, 
42-43; in 1600, App. C; 
during the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 50-51; teaching staff, 
114-115. 

Comite consultatif. See Com- 
mittee, consulting. 

Comite du contentieux. See Com- 
mittee on litigation. 

Commerce, theory of, instruction 
in, 216. 

Committee, consulting, 94; of 
public instruction, 59 ff . 

Committee on litigation, 90. 

Comparative grammar, in exam, 
for dip. of higher study, 366. 

Compayre, M., quoted, 22, 385. 

Composition, French, 209-210. 

"Compositions," 172. See also 
Examinations. 

Concordat, established, 68-69 ; 
dissolution of, 300. 

Concours general, 149. 

Condorcet, 61, 63, 64; quoted, 259. 

Condorcet, lycee, 150, 155. 

Conferences, teachers', 171. 

Conseil superieur de I'instruc- 
tion publique. See Council, 
superior. 

Constantinople, fall of, influence 
upon the Renaissance, 31. 

Control, civil, of education, 43. 

Convention, 57 ff., 76. 

Corbeil, s. of Abelard at, 17. 

Corbie, monastic s. at, 14. 

Cosmography, in agr^gation exam., 
343. 
Study of, 262. 

Coudren, P. de, influence on 
modern language instruction, 
213-214. 

Coulanges, Fustel de, director of 
the norm, s., quoted, 353. 

Council, academic, 97-99, 120 n., 
121; composition, 97-98; 
powers and duties, 98-99. 

Council, advisory. See Council, 
academic ; Council, superior. 

Council, superior, 91-94, 120 n., 
121; composition, 92-93; 
powers and duties, 93-94. 



Cours complementaires, girls', 82. 

Courses of study, in arts faculty, 
23-24; in lycee, 190-191; in 
secondary program, 138-140; 
secondary purpose of, 140. 
See also Curriculum; Form. 

Coustel, Pierre, teacher at Port- 
Royal, 238-239. 

Croiset, M., quoted, on ethical in- 
struction, 299. 

Curriculum, grammar ss., 28; 
parish ss., 28 ; University of 
Paris, 1215, 23-24; university 
colleges, 1600, 390; university 
colleges, 176-, 399-400. See 
also Courses of study; Form. 

Cycles, in secondary course, 79, 
126 ff . ; significance of, 128. 

Danton, 61. 

Daubenton, teacher in norm. s. of 
the Convention, 62. 

Daunou, educational plan of, 63- 
64; provides for modern lan- 
guage instruction, 216. 

Day school, failure of, 30. 

Decorations, 121-122, 172. 

Decree of 1902, 125 ff. 

Decrets, defined, 90. 

Deficits in s. budgets, 141. 

Degree, 45-46; fees, 375-376. 
See also Baccalaureate; Li- 
cence; Master's degree. 

Degree, baccalaureate, established, 
24-25 ; requirements for, 24. 
See also Baccalaureate. 

Degree, doctor's, 26. 

Degree, master's, 115. 

Demenv, M., svstem of gymnas- 
tics, 307. ' 

Demolins, M., founder of Ecole 
des Roches, 379-380, 383. 

Demosthenes, interpreted in 
French, 40; in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Descartes, 17; Discours sur la. 
methode, 289; in the ss. of 
the Port-Royalists, 47. 

Determinance, early name for 
baccalaureate, 24. 

Dialectic, study of, in arts faculty, 
23; in early ss., 21. 

Dictation work, in elementary 
classes, 208. 



INDEX 



437 



Dies irae, 16. 

Dijon, lycee at, study of Greek, 
190. 

Diploma, agr^gation, 375; ele- 
mentary, 316; higher, 115, 
331 ; in girls' ss., contrasted 
with the baccalaureate, 320, 
321, and n.; of higher study, 
358, 361, 365-366; in philos- 
ophy, 366, App. L. 

Diplomacy, in exam, for dip. of 
higher study, 366. 

Diplomas, teaching, in girls' ss., 
316, and n. 

Diplome d'etudes superieures. See 
Diploma of higher study. 

Diplome de fin d'etudes sec- 
ondaires. See Diploma in 
girls' ss. 

Direct method, in modern lan- 
guage teaching, an apprecia- 
tion, 230-232; typical i-ecita- 
tion, 232-233; results, 234- 
236; weakness in, 225-226. 

Director of secondary education, 
91. 

Directory, efforts to encourage s. 
attendance, 65. 

Disbarment of teachers, 121. 

Discipline, 29, 107-108, 168-173; 
at norm, s., 360-361 ; in 1810, 
349._ 

Disputation, scholastic, 6, 37. 

Distinctions, 121-122. 

Doctor's degree, 26. 

Dolet, ifttienne, quoted, 33. 

Domestic economy, study of, in 
girls' ss., 314, 315. 

Donatus, De barbarismo, in arts 
faculty, 24. 

Dormitories, 153, 159-160. 

Drago, 15. 

Drawing, certificates for teaching, 
375; course hours, 217; in- 
struction in, 216, 302-306; 
program, 303-305; replaces 
Greek, 191. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333; in 
central ss., 64; in girls' ss., 
313, 315; teachers, 109. 

Dumonstier, rector of the uni- 
versity, suggested the train- 
ing of teachers, 345. 

Durklicim, M., professor of edu- 



cation. University of Paris, 
364. 

Duruy, V., minister of public in- 
struction, 75, 80, 94, 95, 262; 
on girls' education, 80, 314. 

Dutil, M., quoted, defects in his- 
tory and geography programs, 
254. 

Ealbat, of Tours, 10. 

Eanbald, archbishop of York, 1. 

Ecolan, Mile., directress of lycee 
at Auxerre, 330. 

Ecole des Roches, 379-381. 

Ecole normale. See Normal school, 
higher. 

Ecole polytechnique, 346. 

ificonome. See Bursar. 

Ecouen, girls' s. at, 79, 310. 

Education, classical v. scientific, 
124-125; in agregation exam., 
342, 343; in exam, for cer- 
tificate, 374 ; professional 
study of, 364-365, 368-369; 
three degrees of, 86 ff. 

Education, history of, in France, 
1-83. 

Educational thought, fecundity 
of, in sixteenth century, 37-38. 

Einhard, biographer of Charles the 
Great, 4. 

Elective courses, 190-191. 

Elective system, limited, 385. 

Elementary classes, methods in, 
208. 

Elocution, study of, at Sevres, 
333. 

Emile, 53-54, 57. 

English language, in entrance 
exam., for norm, s., 356 f.; 
for Sevres, 334; in exam, for 
certificate, 374. See also 
Modem languages. 
Study of, 135; at Sevres, 333, 
334, 337; in girls' ss., 315, 
326, and n. 

Epigraphy, in exam, for dip. of 
higher study, 366. 

Episcopal schools, 13, 29. 

Erasmus, 34, 35 n., 37, 38 ;_ efforts 
to reform classical instruc- 
tion, 206-207. 

Esperanto, elective in certain ss. 
in the academy of Dijon, 228. 



438 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Esthetics, study of (included under 
philosophy, q. v.), 137. 

Estienne, Henri, Similarity be- 
tween the French and the 
Greek language, 40. 

Estouteville, Cardinal d', reform 
of, 29, 43. _ _ 

Ethical tendency in instruction, 
210. 

Ethics, in agregation exam., 342, 
343; in entrance exam, for 
Sevres, 333-334. 
Study of (included under phi- 
losophy, q. v.), 137, 289 ff.; 
at Sevres, 333-334; in peda- 
gogies, 56. See also Morale. 

Euclid, in university curriculum 
of 1600, 45. 
Study of, in Jesuit ss., 258. 

Euripides, study of, in girls' ss., 
325. 

Examinations, admission to the 
norm, s., 355-358; agrega- 
tion, 342-343, 371-373; cer- 
tificates of competency for 
elementary classes, 374; cer- 
tificates of competency for 
modern languages, 37.3-374 
entrance to Sevres, 333-335 
importance of, 343; in girls 
Bs., 320-321; master's de- 
gree, 362; promotion, 140- 
141; quarterly, 172; teach- 
ing certificate in girls' sec- 
ondary ss., 339-340, App. K. 
See also Baccalaureate ex- 
aminations. 

Excursions, school, 178. 

Exercise, absence of, among French 
s.boys, 138, 

Experiments, See Laboratory 
work. 

Explication des textes. See Trans- 
lations, word-for-word. 

Extension classes, recommended 
by Minister Duruy, 80, 

Eyesight, defective, 156,. 

Faculties of early university, 22, 
Faculty of arts, 22 flf. ; of theologv, 

22. 
Falloux law, reactionary, 314, 351. 
Fees, 166-168; degree, 375-376; 

extra, 168; for norm, stu- 



dents, 347; in girls' ss., 80; 
in university of 1600, 45; re- 
mission, in higher institu- 
tions, 120; suggested aboli- 
tion, 39. See also Tuition. 

Felbiger, influence of , 346. 

Fenelon, lycee, at Lille, 317, 319. 

Ferrieres, monastic s. at, 14. 

Fille ainee du roi de France, la, 
34 n. 

Fleury, Abb6, quoted, criticizing 
too early study of arithmetic, 
257, and n. 

Football, 158-159, 178. 

Foreign literatures, program for 
study, in girls' ss., 326. 

Form, Elementary classes: draw- 
ing, 303; French, 208; geog- 
raphy, 244, 245; history, 244, 
245; mathematics, 262-263; 
modem languages, 217-218; 
science, 262-263. 
SLxth: drawing, 303; French, 
192-193; geography, 245- 
246; history, 245; Latin, 
192 ; mathematics, 264 ; 
modern languages, 219-220; 
science, 264, 
Fifth : drawing, 303 ; French, 193- 
194 ; geography, 246 ; history, 
246; Latin, 193; mathemaV 
ics, 264; modern languages, 
219-220; science, 264. 
Fourth : drawing, 303 ; English, 
220-221; French, 195; geog- 
raphy, 246; German, 221; 
Greek, 194; history, 246; 
Italian, 221; Latin, 194; 
mathematics, 265 ; morale, 
2SS; Russian, 221; science, 
265-266; Spanish, 221. 
Third : book-keeping, 267 ; 
drawing, 304; English, 220- 
221; French, 196; geog- 
raphy, 247; German, 221; 
Greek, 196; historv, 247; 
Italian, 221; Latin, 195; law, 
300-301; mathematics, 266; 
morale, 299; Russian, 221; 
science, 266-267 ; Spanish, 
221. 
Second : drawing, 304 ; English, 
222; French, 197-198; geog- 
raphy, 250; German, 222; 



INDEX 



439 



Greek, 197; history, 249-250; 
Italian, 222; Latin, 196- 
197; mathematics, 273-274; 
science, 273-274 ; Spanish, 222. 
First: drawing, 305; English, 
222; French, 198-199; geog- 
raphy, 251; German, 222- 
223; Greek, 198; history, 
250-251 ; Italian, 223 ; Latin, 
198; mathematics, 274-275; 
science, 274-275 ; Spanish, 
223. 
Philosophy: English, 223; 
geography, 252 ; German, 236 ; 
Greek, 199; history, 251-252; 
Italian, 223; Latin, 199; 
mathematics, 275-276; phi- 
losophy, 290-292 ; science, 
276-277; Spanish, 223. 
Mathematics : drawing, 305 ; 
EngHsh, 223 ; geography, 252 ; 
German, 236; history, 251- 
252; Italian, 223; mathe- 
matics, 278-279 ; science, 
279-280; Spanish, 223. 
Forms, graduate, no official pro- 
gram for, 199; preparatory, 
nature of work, 149; special 
preparatory, 147-148. 
Fortoul, minister, 260, 262. 
Fouarre, rue de, seat of the early 

university, 25, 27. 
Francis I., founder of the College 

of France, 33, 34, 35. 
Francke, influence of, 346. 
Frankfort, seat of the palace s., 4. 
Freehand drawing. See Drawing. 
French language, chap. IX., 
passim. 
Authors read, 191-199. 
Composition, method of in- 
struction, 209-210. 
Course hours, 216. 
Development, 206-208. 
Examination, for agr^gation, 
371; for certificate, 374; for 
dip. of higher study, 366; for 
entrance to norm, s., 356 f. 
Grammar. See Grammar. 
Literature, instruction in, 210- 

212. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333; in 
early lyc^es, 66, 68, 208; in 
elementary classes, 208; in 



new program, 137; in Rol- 
lin's plan, 56; in ss. of the 
Oratorians, 47-48; in ss. of 
the Port-Royalists, 47. 
Time allotment, 191-199, 
Fulda, 12. 

Games, 182-183. See aZso Athletics. 

Gaul, learning in, 2. 

General competition, 384. 

Geography and history, chap. XI. ; 
agregation in, 371; course 
hours in, 217; program, 244- 
247, 249-250. 

Geography examination, for agre- 
gation, 343, 372; for certifi- 
cate, 374; for dip. of higher 
study, 366; for master's de- 
gree, 363; for Sevres, 333; 
specimen question in, 254 n. 
Instruction, assistant suggested 
for, 256; development, 241- 
242; in lower grades, 244; 
methods of, 249; weakness 
in, 253-256. 
Study of, 136-137; at Sevres, 

333, 334, 340; in girls' ss., 
313, 314, 326-327; in early 
lycees, 66, 68, 240; in ss. of 
the Oratorians, 48. 

Geology, in master's exam., 264. 

See also Natural history; 

Science. 
Geometry, in Napoleon's course, 

260. See also Mathematics. 
German language, in exam, for 

certificate, 374; for entrance 

to norm, s., 356 f. ; to Sevres, 

334. See also Modern lan- 
guages. 

Study of, 135; at Sevres, 333, 
334, 337; in girls' ss., 315, 
326, and n. 

Gerson, 28. 

Girls, education of, 79 ff., chap. 
XIV.; during eighteenth cen- 
tury, 309-310; provided for, 
1880,309; secondary courses, 
314-315. 

Girls' schools, administration of, 
compared with that of bovs', 
320; atmosphere, 330-331; 
bathing facilities in, 319- 
320; boarding departments in 



440 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



connection with, 317; char- 
acter of the population, 329- 
330; characteristics of the 
program in, 325; decreased 
interest in, 313-314; di- 
plomas, 320-321; elementary 
classes in, 322; equipment, 
319-320; established by the 
State, 316; fees, 317; growth 
of, 317-319; length of course, 
320; life at, 311-312; objec- 
tions to establishment of, 
316-317; private, 312-316; 
program compared with that 
Jfin the boys', 322-323; sub- 
jects of instruction in, 313, 
322-324; teaching staff, 331- 
332, 336-337. 
Grammar, agregation in, 346, 351, 
371; elementary instruction 
in, 28; exam, for agregation, 
343, 371 ; exam, for entrance 
to Sevres, 333; method of 
teaching, in twelfth century, 
19. 

Study of, in arts faculty, 23; 
in capitulary of 789, 9; in 
central ss., 64; in elementary 
classes, 208; in girls' ss., 313, 
315; in grammar ss. of the 
cathedral, 49-50; in parish 
ss., 28; in pedagogies, 56; 
in ss. of the Oratorians, 48; 
at Sevres, 340. 
"Grammar" schools, Paris, 27. 
Grand master of the university, 

67, 71. 
Gratuity of instructi6n, 53. 
Greard, M., vice-rector of the Uni- 
versity of Paris, 369; quoted, 
322. 
Greek language, chap. IX., pas- 
sim. 

Authors read, 191-199. 

Composition, exercise in, 206. 

Course hours, 216. 

Elective, 136. 

Examination, for agregation, 
371 ; for dip. of higher study, 
366; for entrance to norm, 
s., 356f. 

Literature, program for study, in 
girls' ss., 326. 

Study of, 68, 79, 123, 126, 127, 



191; at College of France, 34; 
in Jesuit curriculum, 41; in 
new program, 137; in Rol- 
lin's plan, 56; in imiversity 
curriculum of 1600, 44; 
method of instruction, 206; 
passing of, 189-190; resus- 
citated by the Renaissance, 
188. 
Time allotment, 191-199. 

Gregory of Tifernus, opened s. at 
Paris, 34. 

Guilds, rise of, 16. 

Guillaume de Conches, a twelfth 
century writer, 17. 

Guizot, quoted, on Alcuin, 5; 
work of, 71-72, 77. 

Guyton de Morveau, on modem 
language instruction, 215. 

Gymnasium, equipment, 157-158; 
lyc6e Janson-de-Sailly, 153. 

Gymnasium, German, 379. 

Gymnastics, 157-158; certificate 
for teaching, 375; instruction 
in, 306-308; Swedish, 307; 
recruitment of teachers, 307. 



Handball, 182. See also Games. 

Harcourt, College d', 150. 

Head master, 105-107; salary, 
116-117. 

Hebrew, study of, at College of 
France, 34. 

Henri IV., lyc^e, 150, 155. 

Henry IV. and the Jesuits, 42; 
great reform of, 39. 

Hersan, introduces study of the 
vernacular, 207. 

Hesiod, in university curriculum 
of 1600, 44. 

Higher education, contrasted with 
secondary, 87. 

Higher normal school. See Normal 
school. 

Hincmar, head of s. at Rlieims, 
13. 

History, agregation, 351; catho- 
licity of the course, 242-243; 
length of course, 71; local, 
urged by Rolland, 239-240; 
neglected by the Ratio stu- 
diorum, 237 ; Romme's classi- 
fication, 240; scope of the 



INDEX 



441 



course, 253; teaching assist- 
ant suggested for, 256. 
Examination, for agregation, 
342, 343, 372; for certificate, 
374; for dip. of higher study, 
366; for master's degree, 
363; for norm, s., 356 f.; for 
Sevres, 333. 
Instruction, before the Revolu- 
tion, 237-239; characteristics 
of the first cycle, 247; char- 
acteristics of the three periods, 
252-253; development of, 
237-244; in lower grades, 
244; methods, 248-249; 
scope of course, 243; use of 
biographical stories, 243. 
Study of, 136-137; central ss., 
64, 240; girls' ss., 313, 314, 
327-328; lycees, 66, 68 ; peda- 
gogies, 56; Rollin's plan, 55- 
56; ss. of the Oratorians, 48; 
at Port-Royal, 238 ; at Sevres, 
333, 334, 340; Traite des 
etudes, 52. 

History and geography, chap. XI.; 
agregation in, 371; course 
hours, 217; instruction in, 
concentric circle plan, 243; 
program, 244-247, 249-252. 

Holidays, 177-179; legal, 178; 
secular, 170. See also Vaca- 
tions. 

Home life, French, 110-111. 

Homer, neglected in Middle Ages, 
34. 
Study of, in university curric- 
ulum of 1600, 44. 

Home work, amount of, 269-270. 

Hours for school work, maximum 
number, 183. 

Humanism, reaction against, 40; 
struggle with realism, 123- 
124. 

Hydrography, chair of, 258. 

Hygiene, infant, lectures on, 97; 
in lycee course, 134. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333. 

Illiteracy, 83. 

Industrial development abroad, 
influence of, 76-77. 

Infant class, subjects of instruc- 
tion, 134. 



Infirmary, 159. 

Innocent III., bulls of, 22. 

Inspection, committee of, 29; of 

colleges, 46; of private ss., 

73. 
Inspectors, academy, 99-101; 

general, 67, 94, 95; women, 

for girls' ss., 313. 
Institutes, of Condorcet, 259. 
"Institutions" (boarding ss. for 

girls), 312, 313. 
Instruction, ethical tendency in, 

210; free, 9; girls' ss., sub- 
jects of, 313; standard of, 

137; subjects of, in lycees, 

see Form. 
Instructions, defined, 90. 
Ireland, early, learning in, 3. 
Isocrates, in university curriculum 

of 1600, 44. 
Italian language, in entrance 

exam, for norm, s., 356 f . ; 

in girls' ss., 326-327. See also 

Modern languages. 

Janson-de-Sailly, lycee, 151, 
152-155, 159, 160 n. 

Jesuits, 34, 46, 57; conservatism, 
48-49; expulsion, 152, 188, 
345; fall, 54-55; organiza- 
tion of the society, 40; rivals 
of the Oratorians, 207; suc- 
cess, 42; suppression of the 
order, 54-55. 

Jesuit schools, absence of science 
work in lower classes, 257; 
compared with the university 
colleges, 50-51. See also Cler- 
mont, College of; Louis-le- 
Grand, lycee. 

Jesus, Society of. See Jesuits. 

John of Salisbury, pupil of Abe- 
lard, 19, 21. 

John the Deaf, 15. 

Juilly, s. of the Oratorians, 238. 

July Monarchy, 71; reorganizes 
the norm, s., 350. 

Khabyl, instruction in, among ss. 
in Africa, 213. 

Laboratory, assistants, 109 ; 
equipment, 284-285 ; work, 
136. 



442 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



La Chalotais, quoted, 214; on 
modem language instruction, 
215. 

Lagrange, teacher in norm. s. of 
the Convention, 62-63. 

Lakanal, lycee, 151, 152. 

Lakanal, provides for modem lan- 
guage instruction, 216; re- 
port of, 64. 

Lancelot, Italian and Spanish 
method of, 214. 

Langlois, Ch. V., quoted, char- 
acterization of geography 
exam., 254 n. ; on the training 
of teachers, 377. 

Languages, ancient, study of, in 
central ss., 64. See also Greek ; 
Latin. 

Languages, modern, 71 ; study of, 
in central ss., 64; teachers of, 
109. See also Esperanto; 
Modern languages; and under 
the individual national names. 

Laon, a center of learning, 17. 

Laplace, teacher in norm. s. of the 
Convention, 62-63. 

La Rochelle, 76. 

Latin language, chap. IX., passim. 
As international language, 189 n. 
Authors read, 191-199. 
Composition, 203. 
Course hours, 216. 
Culture study, 123. 
Examination, for agr^gation, 
371; for dip. of higher study, 
366; for master's degree, 
363; for norm, s., 356 f. 
Literature, program of study, 

in girls' ss., 326. 
Optional in girls' ss., 81, 325. 
Study of, 79, 126, 127; at Col- 
lege of France, 34 ; evolution, 
187-189; in arts faculty, 23; 
in Jesuit curriculum, 41; in 
lyc6es, 66, 68; in Napoleon's 
scheme, 188; in new program, 
137; in palace s., 5; in peda- 
gogies, 56; in program of 
1809, 208; in Rollin's plan, 
56; in ss. of the Oratorians, 
48; in ss. of the Port-Royal- 
ists, 47; in TraiU des 6tudes, 
52; in university curriculum 
of 1600, 4.3-44; method, 203- 



205; not found in girls' ss., 

321, and n. ; place of memory 

work in, 201-202; practical 

value of, 189; primacy of, 

188 n., see also App. F; 

program by forms, 192-199; 

pronunciation in, 202-203. 
Time allotment, 191-199. 
Latran, Council of, 20-21. 
Lavisse, M., quoted, 344. 
Law, common, instruction in, 

300-301. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333, 340. 
Leadership, training for, absence, 

386. 
League, wars of the, 42. 
Legion of Honor, Ecouen founded 

for the relatives of members, 

310. 
Legislation, study of, in central 

ss., 64. 
Lejeune, Mile., quoted, 332-333. 
Lepelletier, 61, 64. 
Le Ragois, Instruction sur Vhis- 

toire de France et romaine, 

237 n. 
Lessons, private, 168. 
Letters, agr^gation in, 351, 371. 
Levasseur, M., head of the Asso- 
ciation for girls' secondary 

education, 314. 
Lewis the Pious, 12, 14. 
Liard, M., vice-rector of the Uni- 
versity of Paris, 369. 
Library, norm, s., 361; St. Riquier, 

14; York, 11. 
Licence, a teaching degree, 25, 

45-46. 
License for teaching, early, 20-21. 
Licentiate, 26. See also Master's 

degree. 
Lighting of schools, 154, 156. 
Literature, exam, for agr^gation, 

343; exam, for Sevres, 333; 

foreign studv of, in girls' ss., 

325; French, 210-212. 
Study of, at Sevres, 333, 334, 

340; in central ss., 64; in 

girls' ss., 314. 
Logic, study of, 289 ff. (included 

under philosophy, q. v.), 137; 

in arts faculty, 28; in Jesuit 

ss., 257. 
Lois, defined, 90. 



INDEX 



443 



Louis-le-Grand, college, 54-55, 
350; lyc^e, 49, 150, 156. 

Louis XIV., establishes girls' s. 
at Saint-Cyr, 310; prescrip- 
tions in s. studies, 50. 

Louis XV., attempted assassina- 
tion of, 54. 

Louis XVIIL, 70. 

Louis Philippe, 72. 

Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, 40, 
41 ff., 49; influence of, 142. 

Luther, 38 ; influence upon human- 
ism, 32. 

Lyc6es, 27, 66 ff . ; curriculum, 68 ; 
discipline in, 69; function, 
89; girls', 81, 315 ff.; Napo- 
leonic, program, 207-208; or- 
ganization, 66; Paris, as pre- 
paratory ss., 148. 

Lyc^es and colleges, comparison, 
103-104, 114; relation be- 
tween, 152. 

Lyon, lycee at, 151. 

Maintenon, Madame de, direc- 
tress of the s. at Saint-Cyr, 
310. 

Maneuvrier, M., quoted, 187. 

Manuel d'exercices gymnastiques 
et de jeux scolaires, 306. 

Marking system, 107-108, 169- 
171. 

Marseille, lycee at, 151. 

Master's degree, 46^7, 125, 361- 
364, 373; commission for 
granting, 25 ; examination, 
347, 348, 349-350, 352, 353, 
362; prerequisites, 25-26. 

Master's diploma, 1511, copy, 
App. A. 

Mathematics, chap. XIL, passim; 
agregation, 351, 371; chairs 
of, 258; classes, advanced, 
260; course, method and 
scope of, 281-283. 
Examination, for agregation, 
343; for certificate, 374; for 
master's degree, 363, 364; 
for norm, s., 356 ff. ; for 
Sevres, 334. 
Study of, 136, 262; at Sevres, 
333 ; comparative programs 
in divisions A and B, 267- 
268; development, 257-262; 



in arts faculty, 23; in cen- 
tral ss., 64; in 1814, 261; 
in girls' ss., 313, 314, 327; in 
higher forms, 280-281; in 
Jesuit ss., 257; in lycees, 66; 
in ss. of the Oratorians, 48; 
in special preparatory forms, 
147-148; methods, 268-271. 
Teachers, special, in RoUin's 
plan, 56. 

Mathematiques transcendantes, 
260. 

Mayence, seat of the palace s., 4. 

Mazarin, College of, 51. 

Meals, 179, 182, 183. See also 
Menu. 

Mechanical drawing. See Draw- 
ing. 

Melanchthon, 38. 

Melun, s. of Abelard at, 17. 

Memory work, emphasis upon, 
201-202. 

Menu, 182, App. J. 

Metaphysics, study of, 289 ff. 
(included under philosophy, 
q. v.), 137; in Jesuit ss., 257. 

Michelet, lycee, 151, 152. 

Military instruction, in norm, s., 
359. 

Military service, 359. 

Mineralogy, in Napoleon's course, 
260; in master's exam., 364. , 
Study of, in 1814, 261. _ 

Minister of commerce and industry, 
381. 

Minister of public instruction, 
creation of office, 71; de- 
partmental organization of 
office, 89 ff . ; powers and 
duties, 94-95, 98, 104, 127 n. 

Missi dominici, 4. 

Modern languages, chap. X. ; agre- 
gation, 371; significance of 
term, 213; in girls' ss., 326- 
327. 
Examination, for agregation, 
342, 372; for dip. of higher 
study, 366; for master's de- 
gree, 363; for norm, s., 356 ff. ; 
for Sevres, 334. 
Instruction, advanced work in, 
233-234; in lower classes, 
217-218; in upper forms, 
218; neglect of, in France in 



444 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



1764, 215; place of, in Guy- 
ton de Morveau's educational 
scheme, 215; provided for by 
various Revolutionary bills, 
216. 
Methods of teaching, 225-236; 
clubs, 229-230; foreign as- 
sistants, 228-229; foreign 
correspondents, 228, and n.; 
illustrative material, 227-228. 
Study of, 127, 135-136; at 
norm, s., 351 ; attempts to 
abolish, 217; compulsory, 
temporarily in 1829, 216; de- 
velopment, 213-218; in girls' 
ss., 313 ; in lower forms, 126 n. ; 
optional, 1830, 216; pro- 
grams, 219-223; replaces 
Greek, 191; relative growth 
of Italian and Spanish, 235- 
236. See also Arabic, English, 
Esperanto, German, Italian, 
Khabyl, Russian, and Spanish. 

"Modern" secondary instruction, 
76 ; course, 262. 

Monastic ss., 13, 16, 27, 29. 

Money, pocket, 185. 

Monge, teacher in norm. s. of the 
Convention, 62. 

Monitors, 28-29. 

Montaigne, 37, 38. 

Montaigne, lycee, 27, 150. 

Montesquieu, quoted, 59. 

Montpellier, first girls' s. at, 317. 

Moral and religious instruction, in 
girls' ss., 313. 

Morale, instruction in, 298-300. 

Music, in parish ss., 28. 
Study of, in girls' ss., 313. 

Musical notation, subject of in- 
struction in capitulary of 
789, 9. 

Mythology, study of, in lyc6es, 68. 



Nancy, royal college at, 76. 

Nantes, Edict of, 40. 

Napoleon, centralization under, 
84; founds girls' s. at Ecouen, 
310-311; founds norm, s., 
63, 346; indebted to Rollin, 
56; neglects study of the 
vernacvilar, 207-208 ; puts 
emphasis upon Latin and 



mathematics, 67 ; re-estab- 
lishes secondary ss., 188. 

Narbonne, College of, 45. 

Nations, of early university, 22. 

Natural history, chair of, 258; 
collections, 272-273; in Napo- 
leon's course, 260; museum, 
346. 
Examination, for agregation, 
343; for certificate, 374; for 
norm, s., 357; for Sevres, 
334. 
Study of, 262; at Sevres, 3.33; 
in central ss., 64; in girls' 
ss., 313, 314. 

Natural sciences, agregation in, 
371. See also Natural history. 

Naval school, 147, 148. 

Navarre, College of, 27, 36. 

Normal school for girls, 81-83. 
See also Sevres. 

Normal school for special second- 
ary instruction (Cluny), 77. 

Normal school, higher, historical: 
founded by Napoleon, 346; 
annexed to the university, 
346-347; under the Restora- 
tion, 347-350; course length- 
ened to three years, 348 ; sup- 
pressed and recreated, 349- 
350; fused in the University 
of Paris, 354; a professional 
s. of the university, 354-355. 
See also Normal school of the 
Convention. 

Normal school, higher, 147, 148; 
admission conditions, 355- 
358; character of the train- 
ing, 353; course, first j'ear, 
361-364, second year, 364- 
367, third year, 367-373; 
entrance exams., 355-358; 
library, 361 ; life at, 359- 
361 ; scholarships, 355 ff. ; 
student's allowance, 355; stu- 
dent regulations, 349. 

Normal school of the Convention, 
62-63, 345, 346. 

Odo of Cluny, 15. 

Oratorians, 46 ff . ; modern lan- 
guage instruction among, 213; 
provision for history, 238; 
reforms in language study, 



INDEX 



445 



207 ; successors of the Jesuits, 
55. 
Ovid, study of, in university cur- 
riculum of 1600, 44. 

Paleography, in exam, for dip. 
of higher study, 366. 

Paraclete, s. of Abelard, 20. 

Paris, a center of learning, 17; 
cathedral ss. at, 17; colleges 
in 1600, order of foundation, 
App. C; educational plan of 
the city, 1793, provides for 
modern language instruc- 
tion, 216; lycees, 150 ff. 

Paris ss., 28, 29. 

Paris, University of, 12, 14, 18, 19; 
formally organized, 22; in 
time of Rollin, 52-53; posi- 
tion in the world of letters, 39. 

Parma, meeting place of Charles 
the Great and Alcuin, 1,4. 

Paulus Diaconus, teacher of 
Charles the Great, 2. 

Pedagogies, 27-28; inspection of, 
29; (part course colleges), 56. 

Pedagogy. See Education, pro- 
fessional study of. 

Pelissier, Abbe, suggests training 
ss. for teachers, 57, 62, 345. 

Pensionnats, 27, 29. 

Pensions (boarding ss.), for girls, 
312. 

Pensions, of teachers, 119. 

Pepin, son of Charles the Great, 6. 

Perquisites, of teachers, 120. 

Perseus, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Personnel, of colleges, 114-115. 

Peter of Pisa, teacher of Charles 
the Great, 2. 

Peter of Spain, Summulae, 28. 

Philip Augustus, 14; sides with 
the students against city au- 
thorities, 22. 

Philology, in exam, for dip. of 
higher study, 366. 

Philosophy, 18, 28, 71, chap. 
XIII., passim; a subject of 
secondary instruction, 290 
agregation, 346, 351, 371 
aim of the course, 297-298 
authors studied, 291-292 
class in, 45; course, 71, 258 



course hours, 217; in the 
curriculum, 292 ff.; program, 
290-292; trend in, 297. 
Examination, for agregation, 
372; for master's degree, 
363; for norm, s., 356 f. 
Study of, 137, 288-298; at 
Sevres, 333; before the 
Revolution, 288-289 ; in 
arts faculty, 23; in grammar 
ss. of the cathedral, 50; in 
lycees, 68; in mathematics 
form, 296; in university cur- 
riculum of 1600, 45; method, 
295-296. 

Physical sciences, agregation in, 
371. 

Physical training. See Athletics; 
Games; Gymnastics. 

Physics, chap. XII., passim; labo- 
ratory work, 284-285; special 
teachers, in Rollin's plan, 56. 
Examination, for agregation, 
343, 372 ; for certificate, 374 ; 
for master's degree, 364; for 
norm, s., 356 ff.; for Sevres, 
334. 
Study of, 136; at Sevres, 333; 
in central ss., 64; in girls' 
ss., 313, 314; in Jesuit ss., 
257; in Napoleon's course, 
260; in ss. of the Oratorians, 
48. 

Physiology, in exam, for master's 
degree, 364. 

Picavet, F., study of the central 
ss., 66. 

Pindar, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Plato, study of, in university cur- 
riculum of 1600, 44. 

Plautus, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Playgrounds, 154. 

Politics, influence of, in s. affairs, 
73. 

Polytechnic s., 147, 148. 

Porphyry, version of, for Aristotle, 
24. 

Port-Royalists, 46-47, 55; pro- 
vided for history, 238, and 
modern language instruction, 
213-214; reforms instituted 
by, 207. 



446 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Practice teaching, 341-342, 351, 
353-354, 369-370 ; weakness 
in the system, 370. See also 
Student lessons. 

Precentor, of cathedral s. at Paris, 
27-28. 

Prefect, 85. 

Preparateurs, 109. 

President of the Republic, appoints 
minister of public instruction, 
90. 

Presles, College of, 38. 

Primary education, 71; con- 
trasted with secondary, 86 ff. 

Primary inspector, 375. 

Primary ss., visits to, by candi- 
dates for the agregation, 
370-371. 

Priscian, study of grammar in 
arts faculty, 24. 

Private ss., 379-381; inspection 
of, 73. 

Prizes, 171-173, 384, 385. 

Probation, period of, for teachers, 
115. 

Professional classes, small pro- 
portion of the population, 
383. 

Professors, 109-111. 

Program, chap. VII.; a day's, 
179-184, App. H; flexibility 
in, 138-139; of 1890-1891, 
123-124; of 1902, 86 ff., 124 
ff., 129-134; overcrowded, 
137-138; of work at early 
colleges, 36; weekly, in girls' 
ss., 322-324. 

Program by classes. See Form. 

Programs, comparative, of divi- 
sions A and B in mathematics, 
267-268. 

Promenade, 178. 

Promotion. See Teachers, pro- 
motion. 

Promotion of pupils, 140-141. 

Propertius, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Protestant colleges, disappearance 
of, 39. 

Proviseur. See Head master. 

Prytanee, modern languages in the 
course, 216. 

Psalms, subject of instruction in 
capitulary of 789, 9, 



Psychology, in entrance exam, for 

Sevres, 333-334. 
Study of, 294-295 (included 

under philosophy, q. v.), 137; 

at Sevres, 334. 
Puericulture, lectures on, 97. 
Punishment, 29, 169-171. 
Punishment, teachers', 120-121. 
Pupils, boarding, 159-164, 165 ff.; 

correspondents of, 162 ; equip- 
ment of, 160-161. 
Pupils, classes of, 114, 164-166; 

at sixteenth century college, 

35. 
Pupils, half boarders, 164 ff. 

QuADRiviuM, 2, 3, 12; in arts 
faculty, 24. 

Rabanus Maukus, pupil of AI- 
cuin, 11. 

Rabelais, 37, 38. 

Racine, acquainted with Italian 
and Spanish languages, 214. 

Racine, lycee, at Paris, 319. 

Ramus, 17, 35 ff. ; educational 
reforms, 38-39; efforts to 
popularize the French lan- 
guage, 207; principal of the 
College of Presles, 38; sug- 
gestions as to fees, 45; writ- 
ings in French, Dialectic, 
French grammar, Reform plan 
for the university, 40. 

Ratio studiorum, 42, 44-45, 49, 
188, 394-395; neglects his- 
tory, 237 ; quoted, 258 n. 

Ratisbon, seat of the palace s., 4. 

Reading, in parish ss., 28; study 
of, in girls' ss., 313; subject 
of instruction in capitulary 
of 789, 9. 

Realien, trend toward, 379. 

Realism, struggle with humanism, 
123-124. 

Realschule, comparison with 
" special " secondary instruc- 
tion, 77. 

Recitation periods, length of, 181. 

Recreation, 164, 179 ff.; at early 
colleges, 37. 

Rector of the university, 22, 46, 
96-97, 121; powers and 



INDEX 



447 



duties in the academic coun- 
cil, 99. 

Reformation, 39; counter, 40. 

Reform ia secondary course, sta- 
bility of, 386-387. 

Religion, study of, in pedagogies, 
56. 

Religious instruction, in lycees, 
70-71. 

Remy of Auxerre, 12. 

Renaissance, 16, 31-33, 378; in- 
fluence, 206; influence in 
university reform of 1600, 
43 f . ; revives study of Greek, 
188; spread over Europe, 33. 

R^petiteurs. See Tutors. 

Reports, s., 166, 171. 

Republic, Second, 74; Third, work 
of, 78-83. 

Restoration, 72. 

Revival of learning, first, chap. 
I.; second, chap. II. 

Revolution, French, 378; in- 
fluence upon scientific sub- 
jects, 259 ; spirit of, 59 &. 

Rewards, 169-171. 

Rheims, a center of learning, 17. 

Rhetoric, agregation in, 346. 
Study of, in arts faculty, 23. 

Ribot commission, 124; quoted, 
112-113, 156, 354. 

Ribot, M., quoted, 106. 

Richelieu, on modem language 
instruction, 213; Rollin's 
debt to, 56. 

Robert de Courgon, outlines ciu*- 
riculum of the University of 
Paris, 23. 

RoUand d'Erceville, attitude 
toward teaching of history, 
239-240 ; demands institu- 
tions for the training of 
teachers, 345 ; educational 
plans, 55-57; indebted to 
Abb^ Pelissier, 57, 62; Napo- 
leon's debt to, 67; plans of, 
contrasted with those of Rol- 
lin, 55; quoted, 48. 

Rollin, attitude toward the teach- 
ing of history, 239; indebted 
to Richelieu, 56; influence of, 
51-53; introduces study of 
the vernacular, 207; plans 
of, contrasted with those of 



RoUand, 55; quoted, on 
philosophy, 289; Traite des 
etudes, 207. 

Rollin, college, 150; laboratory 
work, 284-285. 

Ronune, educational plan of, pro- 
vides for modern language 
instruction, 216. 

Roscellinus, 15. 

Rouen, girls' lycee at, 317. 

Rousseau, 57. 

Royal College. See College of 
France. 

Russian language, in entrance 
exam, for norm, s., 356 f. 
See also Modern languages. 

Sainte-Bakbe, typical Paris col- 
lege of the sixteenth century, 
35, 151. 

St. Bertin, monastic s. at, 14. 

Saint-Cyr, girls' s. at, 310. 

Saint-Cyr, military s., 147, 148, 
149; gymnastic reqiiirements, 
157, 168. 

Saint-Denis, girls' s. at, 79, 310. 

Sainte-Genevieve, chancellor of, 
25; mountain of, 17 ff. 

Saint-Louis, lycee, 27, 150, 155. 

St. Martin, monastic s., 14. 

St. Riquier, monastic s., 14. 

St. Victor, abbey of, 20. 

Salaries, 53, 109, 117; of bursars, 
116-117; of censors, 116-117; 
of head masters, 116-117; of 
teachers, 117. 

Sallust, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Scholar. See Scholarship holders. 

Scholarship, an aim of the French 
ss., 383-385. 

Scholarship holders, 28, 35, 87; 
occupations of parents of, 
App. I; prerogatives, 358- 
359. 

Scholarships, 173-177, App. I; 
at Louis-le-Grand, 55; basis 
of award, 173-176; budget 
appropriation for, 1908, 
174 n.; communal, 174; de- 
partmental, 174; exams, for, 
175; forfeiture of, 176, and 
n. ; honor, 177; norm, s., 
355 ff.; present system due 



448 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



to Napoleon, 173; state, 174; 
temporary, 176. 

Scholasticism, chap. II., passim; 
criticism of the instruction 
under, 21 ; persistency of, 
31-32. 

School, aims of, 383-384; cathe- 
dral, at Paris, 17, 27, 28; day, 
failure of, 30 ; exclusion from, 
170-171; leaving problem, 
79; new type of, 379-381; 
palace, 2, 4, 12. 

School and life, 379-380. 

School architecture, 151-158. 

School buildings, 151-158. 

School day, 179-183. 

School hygiene, 151-158. 

School life, 184-186, 359-361. 

Schools, apartments in, 159; bath- 
ing facilities, 157, 319-320; 
cathedral, 2, 3, 13, 16, 27; 
ecclesiastical, 2, 20 ; episcopal, 
13, 29; "grammar," Paris, 
27; heating of, 156; indus- 
trial, 381; lighting of, 154, 
156; monastic, 13, 16, 27, 29; 
municipal, at Treves and 
Bordeaux, 2; parish, 28, 29; 
private, 379-381; secondary, 
not distinguished from ele- 
mentary in early days, 27; 
size of, 151; special, 65; 
training, 57. 

School system, secondary, appre- 
ciation of, 384. 

School year, 177, 179. 

Science, chap. XII., passim; agr^- 
gation in, 351 ; comparative 
programs, in divisions A and 
B, 268. 
Examination, for agr^gation, 
372; for master's degree, 
363. 
Instruction, 216; early, 257- 
2.59; in 1814, 261; in 1840, 
261; in 1852, 262; methods, 
271-273, 283-284; results, 
286-287. 
Laboratory work, 274, 275, 280, 

284-285. 
Program, first cycle, 264-267; 

second cycle, 273-280. 
Study of, 71, 78, 127, 136; in 
elementary classes, 262-263 ; 



in higher forms, 280-281; in 
lycees, 68; in Napoleonic ss., 
260; in the revolutionary 
period, 259. 
See also under the various 
branches of science. 

Secondary and primary courses, 
relation of, 128. 

Secondary course, length of, 126. 

Secondary courses for girls, 314 ff. 

Secondary education, contrasted 
with higher, 87; contrasted 
with primary, 86 ff . ; defined, 
87-88; director of, 91; pro- 
posed segregation from higher, 
39. 

Secondary instruction, course of, 
126; in arts faculty, 23. 

Secondary s. population, 165. 

Secondary ss., boards of govern- 
ment, 104-105; categories of, 
103-104; contrasted with ss. 
in England, Germany, and 
the United States, 152; early, 
150; not distinguished from 
elementary in early days, 27- 
28; proposed gratuity of in- 
struction in, 382-383; selec- 
tive function, 383-384. 

See, Camille, champion of girls' 
education, 81. 

Self-expression, lack of, in ele- 
mentary classes, 208-209. 

Sevres, girls' norm, s., 331; ad- 
mission requirements, 333- 
335, 337, 339; entrance 
exams., 320, 332-335; foun- 
dation, 332; life at the s., 
335-336; program of work, 
338-339, 341; teaching staff, 
336-337. 

Sewing instruction, at Sevres, 333 ; 
in girls' ss., 313, 327-328. 

Simon, Jules, 94; on girls' edu- 
cation, 314. 

Singing, in early ss., 8; teachers 
brought from Rome, 8. 

Social ideals and the s., 382-383, 
386-387. 

Soissons, ecclesiastical council at, 
20. 

Sophocles, study of, in girls' ss., 
325, 326; neglected in the 
Middle Ages, 34. 



INDEX 



449 



Sorbonne, 355; and the norm, s., 
352-353. 

Sorbon, Robert, 26. 

Spanish language, in entrance 
exam, for norm, s., 356 f . 
Study of, in girls' ss., 326, 327. 
See also Modern languages. 

Specialization, 377. 

Special method courses, 369. 

" Special " secondary instruction, 
76, 262. 

Sports. See Athletics. 

Staff of lycee, 114. 

State and church, 69, 73-74, 378. 

Student lessons, 341, 367-368, 
372. 

Student organizations. See Modern 
languages, methods of teach- 
ing, clubs. 

Study period, Simday morning, 
177. 

Study room, 180. 

Sturm, 38, 44; adapted by the 
Jesuits, 42. 

Subjects of instruction, time allot- 
ment, 129-134; by classes, 
see Form. 

Sub-prefect, 85. 

Sundays, in s., 183-184. 

Supplies, s., furnished free to 
boarders and half boarders, 
164-166. 

Surveillants, 111-114, 180; dor- 
mitory, 113-114. See also 
Tutors. 



Talleyrand, 61, 63, 64; would 
require modern language in- 
struction, 216. 

Talon, colleague of Ramus, 38. 

Teacher and pupils, relationship 
between, 169. 

Teachers, chap. VI., passim, 108- 
122 ; arithmetic, brought 
from Rome, 8; certification 
of, 29; classes, 115 ff.; dearth 
of, 57; disbarment of, 121; 
in elementary classes of the 
secondary ss., 374; in girls' 
ss., 336-337; in preparatory 
classes, 374-375; mathemat- 
ics and singing, early, 8 ; pen- 
sions, 119; promotion, 115- 



119; punishment, 120-121; 
qualifications, 46, 108-109, 
331-332; tenure, 122. 

Teachers' meetings, at Lille, 107. 

Teachers' professional training, 
chap. XV., passim; begin- 
nings of, 345-346; compara- 
tive situation, 352; for girls' 
ss., 331-334. See also under 
Sevres. 

Teaching, a profession, 376-377. 

Teaching staff, 108. 

Tennis, 182. See also Athletics; 
Games. 

Tenure of office of teachers, 122. 

Terence, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Term, s. See School year. 

Text-books, use of, 249-250. 

Texts used. See Authors read. 

Theatre, use of the, in instruction 
in French, 211-212. 

Theocritus, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

Theodulfus, bishop of Orleans, 
9, 13. 

Theology, 18; faculty of, 22. 

TibuUus, study of, in university 
curriculum of 1600, 44. 

"Toumes," 360. 

Tours, 5; Alcuin, abbat at, 10. 

Traite des etudes, 51-52. 

Translation, method of, 204-205. 

Translations, word-for-word, 204- 
205; written, 203-204. 

Treves, early municipal s. at, 2. 

Trivium, 2, 3, 12, 18. 

Tuition, fees for, 167-168; in 
central ss., 65. See also 
Fees 

Tutors, 111 ff., 115, 121, 181-182; 
at Sevres, 336-337. 



Universities op France, order 
of foundation, App. D. 

University of Paris, 10, 18, 19; 
position in the academic 
world, 39; requirements for 
admission, 23; reform of, 
43-46; statutes of 1600, 43; 
abolished, 58; re-established, 
67. 

Unrest, educational, 378-379. 



29 



450 



FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



Vacations, 177-179 ; tendency 
to lengthen, 179. See also 
Holidays. 

Vaccination, compulsory, 162. 

Vernacular, growth of, 40; in 
program of Port-Royalists, 
188; in program of Rollin, 188. 

Versailles, 76; girls' lycee at, 341. 

Vice-rector, 354. 

Villemiain, minister of public in- 
struction, 72 f. ; estimate of 
Rollin, 51. 

Virgil, study of, proscribed at 
Tours, 1 1 ; neglected in the 
Middle Ages, 34; in uni- 
versity curriculum of 1600, 
44. 

Visitors, few, 163-164. 

Vives, 37, 38. 



Vocational training, trend toward, 

381-382. 
Voltaire, lycee, 151. 

Week hours, 137-138. 

William of Champeaux, 17, 18. 

Women teachers in boys' sec- 
ondary ss., 134-135. 

Worms, seat of the palace s., 4. 

Writing, subject of instruction in 
capitulary of 789, 9; in girls' 
ss., 313; in parish ss., 28. 

York, cathedral s. at, 2, 3; library 
at, 11. 

Zoology, exam, for master's de- 
gree, 364. See also Natural 
science. 



> hi '/ 



